€15,000 car accident compensation has been awarded to model and personal trainer Zoe Whelan in relation to a shoulder injury she sustained when a Cherrypicker van backed into her Audi car close to the famous Five Lamps in Dublin.
Ms Whelan was praised by Judge Jacqueline Linnane in the Circuit Civil Court today for having made an early disclosure to the defendant that she had previously settled two road traffic accident compensation claims for €12,500 each.
Judge Linnane said said: “All medical reports were fully furnished in relation to Ms Whelan’s previous accidents before this case came to court. There is no question of anything having been concealed from the defence and I want to make that very clear.”
Counsel for Ms Whelan, barrister John Nolan, was told by Judge Linnane that the court had found her evidence of the December 2017 accident far more compelling than that provided by the two witnesses appearing on behalf of Electsol Services Limited. The testimony provided by these witnesses claimed she (MS Whelan) had driven at speed into the back of its Cherrypicker van which was being used in the repair of street lamps in Dunne Street, Dublin.
Ms Whelan (25), who lives in Newbury Park, Clonshaugh, Dublin, informed the court she had come to a halt behind the Cherrypicker in question. The Cherrypicker had been partly blocking the street and was surprised when she saw its reversing lights come on and move backwards towards her. She went on to say that there was nothing else she could do when she saw the reversing lights come on.
Ms Whelan said: “I was screaming and pumping the horn but it kept coming and crashed into the front of my car. My right arm was fully extended and firmly on the steering wheel as I pumped the horn with my left hand. When it struck my car my arm was pushed back, injuring my right shoulder.”
In what Judge Linnane described as a vigorous cross-examination by defence counsel, Ms Whelan told the court she did not tell lies, denying defence allegations that it was her who had driven into the back of the Cherrypicker.
Tony Doyle, the driver of the Cherrypicker told Mr Nolan the reversing lights would have come on when he had put the vehicle into reverse but he had not moved it as he did not have an interior rear mirror and had been awaiting hand signals from Mr Leavy. When there had been no signals he had got out and saw there had been an impact.
Judge Linnane said Ms Whelan had told the court her shoulders had been injured in both of the two previous accidents, previously mentioned, and the court accepted the December 2017 incident would not have helped the earlier injuries she sustained.
Ms Whelan had taken the legal action against Electsol Services Limited, of Rathbrack, Killucan, Co Westmeath, and Dublin City Council for which it had been completing sub-contract work on street lights in the Five Lamps area.