Pedestrian Injury Compensation Reduced 60% by Judge

by | Dec 29, 2014

A High Court judge has reduced a settlement of pedestrian injury compensation by 60 percent to account for the plaintiff´s contributory negligence.

On September 26th 2010, Stacey McCaughey (24) was hit by a car on the Carrickmannon Road in Ballygowan as she was walking home with friends after an evening at the nearby Chestnut Inn. Stacey spent four days in intensive care and received treatment for a frontal lobe contusion, a spinal injury and multiple fractures.

Following the accident, Stacey suffered from headaches, moods swings and memory loss, and – despite not remembering the accident due to the amount of alcohol she had consumed – made a claim for pedestrian injury compensation against the driver of the vehicle that hit her; alleging that he was driving too fast for the road conditions.

The driver of the vehicle – Brian Mullan – disputed the claim; arguing that Stacey and her friends had been drunk and wandering aimlessly across the road. A forensic engineer confirmed that Mullan had probably hit Stacey as he swerved to avoid other members of the party staggering along the road, while the police verified that he had been sober at the time.

At Belfast High Court, Mr Justice O´Hara found in Stacey´s favour, stating that the onus had been on Mullan to drive at a speed suitable for the road conditions in order that he would be able to stop in time to avoid any obstruction on the road ahead. However, he also found Stacey negligent as being a road user who had responsibilities for her own safety.

Judge O´Hara said that Stacey had failed to look after her own safety “by walking in the middle of a dark, unlit road while drunk and incapable of being alert to traffic”.  Having assessed Stacey´s claim for pedestrian injury compensation at £110,000, the judge reduced the settlement by 60 percent to £44,000 to account for her contributory negligence.

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