Man who lost leg in crash cannot sue council on road grit issue

A man who lost a leg in a traffic incident which he claimed may have been partly caused by muck and grit on a bad road cannot join the local council as a defendant in his action for damages, the High Court has ruled.

Luke O'Reilly had his left leg amputated below the knee following the incident in which a car went out of control and hit him near Swords, Co Dublin, on February 16th, 2010.

It is claimed Mr O’Reilly, Barley Hill, Ballyboughal, was driving along the Swords to Ballyboughal Road when he saw another car coming off the road and veering into a housing estate.

Mr O’Reilly got out of his car and went to assist the driver of the other car by helping her to restart it. As he was standing talking to her, he saw another car coming towards him along the grass verge.

Serious injuries

He began running towards his own car but was struck by the third car and suffered serious injuries requiring amputation of his leg at Beaumont Hospital.

He sued the driver of the car which hit him. That driver’s insurers, Aviva, initially wrote to him stating liability was not an issue, but two months later Aviva said this was an error and liability was not conceded.

Following a Garda report into the incident which stated the roadway was wet with small bits of dirt and muck on it which appeared to be a contributory factor in the collision, Mr O'Reilly, following legal advice, sought to join Fingal County Council as a defendant in his action, as it has responsibility for the public roadway.

Two-year limit

The council asked the High Court to dismiss the claims against it on grounds that the council was not joined as a defendant until July 2014, which was outside the applicable two-year time limit for such cases.

The Garda report was sent to Mr O’Reilly in October 2010 which meant, inclusive of an additional six-month holding period pending authorisation of his proceedings by the Injuries Board, the claim became statute-barred on April 20th, 2013, the council argued.

Mr O’Reilly’s lawyers argued their full knowledge of the alleged causes of the incident was only complete in August 2013 after they received an engineer’s report which stated the curvature or camber of the road was another possible contributory factor.

Releasing the council from the proceedings, the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, found Mr O'Reilly's knowledge as to the council's possible liability arose no later than October 20th, 2010.

The time limit started to run from this date and his case against the council was statute-barred, he said.

The claim against the car driver remains in being.