A 47-year-old man with 20 previous criminal convictions who sued after he claimed he was knocked off his bicycle by a car which failed to stop has been awarded €20,000 by the High Court.
Mr Justice Michael Hanna said his impression of recovering drug addict Thomas O’Neill was he was not lying and he did suffer injuries when he was struck by the car and ended up in a ditch in North Dublin almost five years ago.
Thomas O’Neill, who is currently serving a sentence at Midlands Prison and who at the time of the accident lived in Balrothery, Dublin, had sued the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland as a result of the accident on June 18, 2014, near Ballyheary Road, Swords, Dublin, as he cycled home from a fishing trip.
It was claimed the driver who left the scene failed to keep an adequate lookout and failed to swerve to avoid the collision.
Mr O’Neill, who it was claimed was knocked unconscious, sustained injuries including swelling on his right jaw and also had injuries to his back and arm.
He claimed his mouth opening was restricted after the accident. The claims were denied.
The court heard Mr O’Neill has 20 previous convictions and is currently serving a six-year sentence at Midlands Prison after breaking into a Cork house armed with a yard brush.
He was sentenced to eight years imprisonment with two years suspended by Cork Circuit Criminal Court last year. He told the High Court today he was ashamed and sorry in relation to the circumstances of his convictions.
In his judgement, Mr Justice Hanna described Mr O'Neill as a person with a long criminal record and a former drugs user whose addiction had blighted his life and the lives of a lot of other people who have suffered under the consequences of his need to rob and steal.
But the judge said notwithstanding his serious criminal record, Mr O'Neill was entitled to make a claim in relation to the accident and was entitled to seek a recovery in law.
Mr O'Neill's account of the accident, he said, had been borne out by the hospital records. A taxi driver who came upon the scene, the judge said, was a Good Samaritan who had offered help and gave his name and phone number on a piece of paper.
The absence of that note, the judge said, presented a difficulty in the case but he said the taxi driver came to court to give evidence and was doing his best to tell the truth. The judge said the taxi driver supported Mr O'Neill's account of the accident.
There was also a lacuna in relation to how the bike was returned to Mr O'Neill's residence after the accident, but another witness who had taken photographs of it gave evidence and the photograph showed damage consistent with Mr O'Neill's account of the accident.
Mr O'Neill, he said, had presented himself at a garda station some days after the accident and did make reference to being knocked down but the garda noted he was in an intoxicated and incoherent state.
Mr Justice Hanna said within a matter of days of the accident Mr O'Neill went off the wagon and this would explain the situation in the garda station.
Mr O'Neill, he said, has a very significant history of serious drug abuse and it just about offered a plausible explanation as to the lapse and also could explain the lack of memory on certain things.