High Court reporters
A traffic management worker whose foot was run over by a bus while he was operating a stop sign at roadworks has been awarded more than €103,000 by the High Court.
Damien O'Donoghue, of Shanbally, Cappoquin, Co Waterford, sued his employer Total Highway Maintenance Ltd (THM) and Dublin Bus over the accident on the Kilmore Road in Coolock, Dublin, on November 15th, 2015.
Mr Justice Micheál P O’Higgins found Dublin Bus 80 per cent liable for the accident due to the driver going too fast or failing to keep a lookout and THM to be 20 per cent liable on the basis that the traffic management system it had operated had a number of frailties.
The judge found no contributory negligence on the part of Mr O’Donoghue.
Mr O’Donoghue claimed THM was, among other things, negligent and in breach of duty by failing to ensure the place of work was safe and without risk in compliance with the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005.
He claimed the Dublin Bus driver drove too fast, failed to keep a proper lookout and drove carelessly or dangerously.
The defendants denied the claims and blamed each other for the accident. Dublin Bus pleaded contributory negligence on the part of Mr O'Donoghue.
Mr O'Donoghue suffered a significant crush injury to his foot and spent 11 days in hospital. He was in a cast until January 4th, 2016 and off work for three-and-a-half months.
The court, which was shown video footage of the accident, heard Mr O' Donoghue worked as a general operative and had three days training in traffic management before he began working as a controller at the Kilmore Road roadworks.
His job that day was operating a swivel stop/go sign mounted on a traffic cone next to a large concrete motorway dividing barrier.
As the bus was going through on the "go" sign, it struck the cone and then ran over his right foot. He was wearing steel-capped footwear which was flattened.
Mr Justice O’Higgins said Mr O’Donoghue had to work within the instructions given to him by his employer.
There were a number of different dangers for him, including that he had to sit on the concrete barrier around which there was no safety or buffer zone, he said.
It meant this was an extremely tight pinch point and Mr O’Donoghue was reliant on the drivers of very large vehicles to come to a crawl to get through, he said.
Mr Justice O’Higgins said he was not satisfied that sufficient practical steps were taken by the employer to ensure the safety of Mr O’Donoghue.
The judge accepted engineering evidence that the bus driver was going too fast and did not slow down.
He found the driver, who he said gave honest evidence, failed to tailor his speed for the situation and misjudged the width of the road, including by failing to err on the side where Mr O’Donoghue was.
The judge awarded €103,968. He refused an application from THM for a stay on the award pending appeal.
