An accountancy student has been awarded more than €250,000 in personal injury compensation damages after a High Court judge found she experienced post-traumatic stress disorder after being struck by a car in Dublin in 2011.
The total award to Cheng Zhang (36) by Mr Justice Anthony Barr was €465,526 but this was reduced as contributory negligence. The contributory negligence attributed to her was assessed at 45pc as she had opted to cross the junction when the pedestrian light was red.
The judge said that due to the car crash Ms Zhang became profoundly mentally unhealthy and could no longer work. Her job was her only source of income and, as a result, she fell into rent arrears, became homeless and required local authority emergency accommodation.
Due to the level of intelligence, ambition and high level functioning which Ms Zhang displayed prior to the accident, Judge Barr said that was satisfied that she would have gone on to qualify as a certified accountant and would have secured full employment if it was not for the accident.
Ms Zhang, a native of the Liaoning province of China came to Ireland in 2003 to study English. When the accident occurred she was studying accountancy.
She had sued the driver of the car Stephen Farrell of Shelbourne Park Apartments, Ringsend, Dublin as a result of the accident April 17 2011. She was crossing at the junction of Merrion Row and Merrion Street Upper when she was thrown into the air having been hit by a car which was turning left from Merrion Street Upper into Merrion Row.
It was stated in Court that she suffered soft tissue injury to her knees and pelvis and a blow to the head. This meant that she was unable to move or communicate for about an hour after the accident occurred. The Court was also told that Ms Zhang went on to develop severe and persistant mental illness in the form of post traumatic stress disorder as well as the condition referred to as fibromyalgia.
Legal representative for Mr Farrell argued that Ms Zhang had listed a number of physical complaints for which no organic basis could be established and that she now suffers from an anxiety disorder.
Mr Justice Barr accepted the evidence of Ms Zhang’s psychiatrist that she suffered significant and serious mental health issues due to the road accident and that following the accident there was a catastrophic change to her mental stability.
He also accepted the evidence of the psychiatrist Ms Zhang’s symptoms are severe, chronic and enduring despite treatment efforts to date.