Posted: August 1st, 2014
A settlement of €1 million compensation for a pedestrian injured in a car accident has been approved at the High Court in favour of a sixty-year-old woman.
On September 9th 2011, Elena Schiopu from Dublin was attempting to cross the Morehampton Road with a buggy containing her young granddaughter. A car stopped to give way, and Elena stepped out from the pavement. As she did so, Elena was hit by a vehicle that had attempted to undertake the stationary car, and despite suffering cuts and bruises, Elena continued home with her unharmed granddaughter.
On arriving home, Elena started to experience a weakness in her arms and legs and later developed slurred speech. She went to hospital for an examination and was admitted before being transferred to intensive care as her condition deteriorated. Elena remained in intensive care for seventeen days – during which time she was diagnosed as quadriplegic due to a brain injury. Elena lost all method of communication and is now confined to a wheelchair.
In 2012, Elena was moved into to a specialist nursing home where she can receive 24 hours-a-day specialist care and a claim for compensation for a pedestrian injured in a car accident was made on Elena´s behalf by her daughter against the driver of the vehicle that had hit her – Eamon McElwain of Donnybrook in Dublin.
McElwain´s insurers contested the claim for compensation – arguing that their policyholder had not been speeding or driving dangerously and that Elena had failed to pay attention to the road conditions as she stepped out from the pavement. Elena´s solicitors countered by saying McElwain had engaged in a dangerous manoeuvre and should have been aware that there was the potential for a pedestrian to be crossing the road.
The two parties negotiated a €1 million settlement of compensation for a pedestrian injured in a car accident; but, due to the fact that the claim was made on Elena´s behalf as she was not able to represent herself, the settlement had to be approved by a judge before the case could be resolved.
Due to the magnitude of the settlement, the case was heard by Ms Justice Mary Irvine at the High Court. Judge Irvine was told the circumstances of Elena´s accident and the nature of her injuries, after which she commented that this was a particularly distressing case, and she extended her sympathies to the family as she approved the settlement of compensation.
Categories: Pedestrian Accidents
