Woman, 60, sues DAA for damages over oil tanker fall

A WOMAN who fell from an oil tanker while conducting a search at Dublin Airport has sued for damages, including €228,000 in past and future loss of earnings, in the High Court.

Linda Doolin, 60, from Kinsealy Court in Swords, claimed to have bumped her head and hurt her back in the accident in May 2013.

Before Judge David Keane, her senior counsel Conor Dignam said Ms Doolin had worked for the defendant, Dublin Airport Authority, part-time since June 2006. Her role was an airport search operative. She became a full-time staff member just before the accident.

He said she had spent most of her seven years there working in the area of passenger security, but she was sent to a greater variety of locations once she became permanent.

He said the accident occurred when she was sent to the cargo security point. He said this was where vehicles passed from the public area into the secure, private area.

He said Ms Doolin did not recollect having worked in that area before. He said in this case, the oil tanker driver left his cab to be checked by two members of the search unit.

He said the operatives, who included Ms Doolin, were tasked with checking five random points on the vehicle, from a total of eight. He said Ms Doolin had not had any training in how to search a large vehicle.

‘It seems it was expected she would figure out how to carry out this task,’ he said. He said she fell off the truck while searching it and sustained injuries. DAA contests her claim for compensation.

The case continues today.