Woman thrown from seat when bus braked is awarded €26,000

A 36-year-old carer, who was violently thrown out of her seat when a bus was forced to brake suddenly, has been awarded €26,000 damages against Dublin Bus. 

 

Amy Gill, of Malahide Road, Dublin 3, told Judge Sinead Ni Chulachain in the Circuit Civil Court on Monday that she had been shocked and embarrassed when flung onto the floor of the aisle of the bus. 

 

She told her barrister Susan Lennox that she suffered whiplash injuries to her neck and lower back and still suffered pain in her cervical spine more than five years after the accident. She was still treating her pain with pain killers. 

 

Ms Lennox, who appeared with Stuart Gilhooly of H.J. Ward Solicitors, told the court that liability had been conceded by Dublin Bus and the case had become an assessment of damages. 

 

She said Ms Gill had been a passenger on the No 31 bus on the Howth Road, Dublin, when the accident happened. 

 

Ms Gill said she had been jolted and thrown forward onto the floor of the bus when it stopped suddenly. She suffered an injury to her neck and had been taken by ambulance to the accident and emergency department of Beaumont Hospital where X-rays revealed there had been no bone injuries. 

 

She said she had developed pain in her lower back and because of her injuries she had transferred to the lighter work of night duties in her job. She still suffered pains in her back which she treated with pain killers. 

 

Judge Ni Chulachain, awarding Ms Gill €26,000 damages and costs, said her lifestyle had been affected by her injuries and she had to give up running. She had suffered moderate physical injuries which had been ongoing for more than five years after the September 2015 accident. 

 

Although new judicial guidelines aimed at cutting personal injury awards by up to 40 per cent came into being over the weekend they do not apply to claims taken out before close of business last Friday 23rd of April which saw queues of legal assistants lining up to lodge personal injury claims in order to beat the deadline. 

 

Ms Gill’s proceedings did not fall within the catch-all period. Future awards of say €26,000 could be reduced, at the discretion of the judge, to under €16,000. 

 

The Irish Times