Passenger wins €70k for disqualified driver’s crash

A MAN who was a passenger in a crashed car driven by a disqualified and uninsured driver has won damages of €70,000.

The High Court awarded Anthony Doyle the compensation, to be paid by the car driver Bridget Lyons, who had not defended the case. But Mr Justice Raymond Fullam struck out his claim against the Motor Insurers Bureau Ireland – which generally compensates victims of uninsured drivers.

He ruled that Mr Doyle knew when he got into her car that she did not have insurance, and that the MIBI therefore had a defence to his claim.

In his judgment, Judge Fullam noted that the accident occurred in the early hours of October 10, 2008, on the Tullow to Carlow road. He said Mr Doyle, 21 at the time and from Newoak Estate, Carlow, was a back-seat passenger in the Nissan car driven by Ms Lyons, of Grange Court, Hackettstown Road, Carlow, having been called by a friend to go ‘for a spin’. There were three other passengers in the car at the time.

‘In the course of the drive, the first defendant [Ms Lyons] took Mr Carey’s beer can and drank from it,’ the judge said. ‘The plaintiff states that he asked her to stop and let him out. The first defendant lost control of the car midway between Tullow and Carlow.’ The

Had driven off without him

car overturned a number of times.

The judge said the plaintiff’s engineer had attributed the accident to excessive speed. Mr Doyle said he had been wearing a seatbelt, but he felt pain in his left hand and was bleeding heavily. He walked to a nearby house for help, and realised Ms Lyons had driven off without him, the judge said.

He was detained in St James’s Hospital for five days, during which he had a number of operations, including a skin graft and straightening rod, on the dominant fingers of his left hand. His mid-finger remains permanently bent, and he has severe scarring on his hand, the judge said.

Mr Doyle told the High Court he had assumed Ms Lyons had insurance, and stated that he did not know her well.

He said he did not see Ms Lyons when she was in court on October 17, 2007 and was convicted of driving without insurance, and disqualified from driving for 25 years. But the judge noted that a garda specifically recalled him having been there, and ‘jeering’ when the disqualification was imposed.

Mr Doyle denied knowing that she had 32 previous convictions for road traffic offences. Judge Fullam also noted that Mr Doyle had initially tried to tell gardaí that a Polish national had been driving the car, not Ms Lyons.

Judge Fullam said it was ‘simply not credible’ that Mr Doyle assumed Ms Lyons was insured, and dismissed his claim against the MIBI.