On your bike

Ireland may be about to turn its back on decades of expensive whiplash claims, writes Maurice Gueret, as he takes to the roads on an old mode of transport

Late Late

It must be about 15 years since I made a solitary guest appearance on The Late Late

Show. Compo culture was the topic and there was a feisty debate. I felt doctors and lawyers were doing best from the status quo. Exaggerated symptoms, inflated awards and heavily embroidered fees were the order of the day. All these years on, and the problem remains. Last month, the Personal Injuries Commission under Justice Kearns released a final report on the issue. They called for Ireland to recalibrate its awards, and to do it now. Ireland is very much an international outlier when it comes to paying large amounts of money for whiplash claims. It also has an underworld reputation as a good place to go to and try on false claims. We need to rebalance the equation so that the more serious bone-shattering injuries are better looked after, and awards for sprains fall back into line with international norms.

Black box

In the UK, they are also trying to reduce damages for soft-tissue claims. But Ireland already pays out four and a half times the level of damages for these injuries than they do in England and Wales. That is the scale of our problem. It’s not sustainable. Anyone who drives, operates or even shops at a business, picks up the tab due to seriously out-of-kilter insurance premiums. Judges need to stand up and play their part in reducing awards in line with the rest of the EU. Doctors need to use stricter international criteria, rather than patient testimony alone when compiling injury reports. Hospitals need to follow the lead set by Tallaght University Hospital, who come in for special commendation in the report for their assessment protocols and early physiotherapy treatment of whiplash injuries. Car-makers and insurers must start promoting black-box technology, where movements and speed of cars are recorded as they are in planes.

Senior cycle

There is a photograph of great-grandfather Gueret in my hallway. It was taken at Sandymount in the early 1880s. The bearded young Frenchman and his two pals are posing for the camera, each with their own penny-farthing bicycle. After decades of shed-life, I had my trusty, rusty old bike serviced last month. Not the penny-farthing, I hasten to add. The chain was oiled and a new brake cable added. I got my very first helmet, a lock as heavy as the bike, and new trouser clips to complete the picture. And I was off. Scared spitless all the way. Cycling through quiet suburban areas was a doddle and a joy. But main-road cycling is a journey of horror. European countries are reporting a sharp rise in road deaths among older cyclists. As I struggled to keep a straight path, I wondered if we lose the balance, skills or perhaps nerve in midlife. As a young buck, I saw only the road ahead. Now I see craters, speedbumps and rocks. I worry about what I cannot see behind me. There are cycle lanes that give cars nowhere to go and car lanes that do the same to cyclists. My cruising speed is so slow that I wouldn’t inflict myself on the world of rush-hour cycling, not yet anyhow. One of the greatest dangers to ordinary riders is Dublin’s extreme cyclists, who treat every journey as a Tour de France time trial. As a motorist for most of my adult life, I have had my share of choice words about two-wheelers. But they put up with a lot more than motorists. After a few wobbly journeys in the suburbs, I suspect our new love affair with bicycles is taking place in one of the most dangerous cycling capitals of the world.

Off the scales

I was interested to read recent comments by Dr Peter Boylan about the need for better equipment in our hospitals if terminationof-pregnancy services are to begin. Maternity units in this country have been notoriously lacking when it comes to availability of early-pregnancy ultrasound scanning. The only Dublin maternity hospital with an MRI scanner on site is Holles Street. This can be a crucial piece of equipment when determining the site, scale and nature of foetal abnormalities. Across the water, the Royal College of Midwives has also been complaining about the lack of equipment in maternity hospitals. They took the opportunity afforded by a new study on maternal obesity to claim that some midwife clinics don’t even have the use of a weighing scales!