Man suing over crash ‘was driving like a lunatic’
A DRIVER suing for spinal injuries after a collision was himself driving ‘like a lunatic’, a court has heard.
Lawyers for the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland also said Andrzej Podlawiak was pictured climbing into his bin to press down the rubbish at a time when he said he had serious injuries.
The bureau, which compensates victims of uninsured or untraced drivers, is hotly contesting Mr Podlawiak’s claim for damages.
The 47-year-old Polish man, who was living in O’Connor Park, Longford, at the time of the crash, on May 20, 2012, said it was caused by a driver who did not stop.
He said the other car was coming quickly towards him, partly on his side of the old Mullingar-to-Longford Road, and that caused him to lose control of his Peugeot, which struck bushes and spun around.
But the MIBI has claimed he was solely to blame for the crash, as he was driving ‘like a lunatic’ on the wrong side of the road at speed.
During cross examination of Mr Podlawiak, Noel McCarthy SC for the MIBI, said there was no ‘phantom car’, and that the two occupants of another car would tell the court they were ‘nearly wiped out’ by Mr Podlawiak’s driving.
‘What will you say when they get into the witness box and say your car nearly took them out? That you caused the accident yourself?’ he asked.
Mr Podlawiak replied: ‘I can only assure you that I was driving very slowly. A passenger in the car was sick and I was driving very slowly.’ Mr Podlawiak also demonstrated to the court that he could not bend his back enough to reach his knees while standing.
But a private detective, hired by the MIBI, took photographs outside Mr Podlawiak’s Longford home, showing him climbing into his bin to compress his rubbish and getting into the driving seat of his BMW.
Mr McCarthy put it to him that the pictures, taken 18 months after his accident, showed him ‘in glowing health’, doing things that he had told a doctor he was physically unable to do.
‘Had you been to Lourdes or Knock in the meantime?’ Mr McCarthy asked.
Mr Podlawiak said he had taken eight painkillers on the day of the photographs.
Following the accident, Mr Podlawiak was diagnosed as having multiple fractures of a vertebra in his back.
He subsequently spent a number of months with a back brace and still suffers pain in his back and was unable to work, his counsel said.
‘Had you been to Lourdes or Knock’