Woman claiming crash injury denies Facebook posts on gym

A woman suing over injuries to her neck and back after a crash has denied entries to her Facebook page meant she had done gym workouts since the incident.

Lyndsey Gervin (33), a mother of two, from Coalisland, Co Tyrone, is among nine people suing for soft tissue injuries arising out of the August 2008 incident when a car allegedly collided with the rear of a mini-bus in which the group were travelling for a night out in Dundalk.

They claim the car left the scene immediately and no one got its registration.

The nine, including the driver, brought claims for injuries which they claim left them in pain for some time after the incident.

The case is against the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) which compensates victims of uninsured drivers. It denies their claims.

After seven of the plaintiffs were awarded compensation of between €3,000 and €8,500 in the Circuit Court, the MIBI appealed to the High Court. The two who were not successful have cross-appealed while a tenth man in the bus did not put in a claim.

Appeal

On the first day of the appeal hearing at the High Court, Ms Gervin told her counsel, Patrick McCann SC, she had to “do away” with going to the gym after the incident but had gone regularly before it.

When the case resumed on Thursday, Jonathan Kilfeather SC, for the MIBI, asked that Ms Gervin be recalled as certain information about her had been learned overnight from her Facebook page.

Mr Kilfeather put to her an entry in January 2014 stating “am actually too excited about going back to workout Defo Gona b good an stick at it this time...” meant she had been at the gym since the incident, as did further entries referring to “another night of pain lol” and about it “being worth it”.

Ms Gervin said it was part of her efforts to advertise her partner’s gym among her friends. Those references were a joke among the Facebook friends to get one of the girls in the group “going” because that girl was doing stuff outside the group, she said.

The entries did not mean she had gone back to the gym because she had not, she said. “That is girly stuff, it would not interest you,” she told Mr Kilfeather.

When Ms Gervin told her counsel her Facebook page was supposed to be private, Mr Kilfeather said the material had been downloaded from a public page.

In her evidence about the alleged crash, Ms Gervin said all she remembered about the car which hit them was the sound of squealing of tyres as it sped off. She was completely shocked by the impact of the collision.

Evidence

Five others who have given evidence so far also said they either did not see the car or all they knew was it might have been green in colour and there might have been two people in it.

The minibus driver, David Morgan (40), also from Coalisland, said he could not remember anything about the incident other than he checked his mirrors and saw no cars.

Mr Morgan and Ms Gervin were among the successful seven in the Circuit Court. The others were: Deirdre Campbell (40), Joanne McGirr (35), her sister Fiona McGirr (38), Lyndsey’s sister Amanda Gervin (44), all from Coalisland, and Bernadette McBride (58), Glasslough, Co Monaghan, who is the mother of Ms Campbell.

Paul Campbell (39), Deirdre Campbell’s husband, and Kevin Kernaghan (43), also from Coalisland, lost in the Circuit Court and cross-appealed to the High Court.

The case resumes next week before Ms Justice Marie Baker.