A bus passenger who was injured after a bus she was travelling was involved in a crash has been awarded €25,000 in the Circuit Civil Court.
The accident occurred when a man ran onto a road in front of a bus to attack a group of Asian people, forcing the bus drover to suddenly brake.
Judge Terence O’Sullivan was advised that the man had flung a bottle at group of people and then “turned on a sixpence in a millisecond” giving a Dublin Bus driver no chance to swerve and avoid hitting him. Susan Lennox BL told the court Rachel Hardiman (28) was a passenger on the bus at the time and was thrown forward sustaining injuries to her face, neck, shoulders and arm in the incident that took place on September 23, 2012.
Judge O’Sullivan, in approving an award to Ms Hardiman of €25,000 bus injury compensation and costs against Dublin Bus, said although the driver had lifted his foot off the accelerator after spotting the man on the road, the court did not believe this to have been a sufficient course of action. He also granted Dublin Bus an order for €25,000 and costs against Mr Richardson, the individual who threw the bottle in the incident that resulted in the bus traffic accident.
The judge felt any competent driver would have had enough time to slow down as drivers could not always expect pedestrians to do exactly what they expected. The bus driver had incorrectly predicted that the pedestrian was going to continue across the road instead of turning around and this was not what happened.