A MAN who worked as a driver for Carlow Emergency Doctors On Call Limited has sued the company alleging he suffered illness, stress and trauma arising from his work, including attending without proper training at a series of crashes, deaths and suicides.
In evidence to Mr Justice Seán Ryan in the High Court yesterday, Martin Fahey said he had started work with the company in May 2001 and his job was to assist and drive the doctors around.
He said he was never trained for what he had to face and was never asked by his employer how he felt. “I didn’t know what I was getting into,” he said.
He said the worst flashbacks he experienced related to an incident in which a woman was trapped under her car and screaming for her daughter as the fire brigade attempted to cut her free from her overturned car.
He also said he was called to a suicide and saw a man hanging. He had to deal with families in such situations and was not instructed how to do so, he said.
In another incident, a doctor treating a man’s serious head wound had asked him to help at the scene of the crash, he said. There was no option to stay put in his car at such times, he said.
On another occasion he was called to a black spot on the Carlow-Clonmel road where a man was dying and he was asked by the doctor present to close the man’s eyes, he said. It was very hard to wind down after such situations, he added.
Mr Fahey (45), College Avenue, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, has sued the company with a registered address at the District Hospital, Athy Road, Carlow, alleging negligence and breach of duty while working as a driver between 2001 and 2003.
The company denies the claims.
The case continues today.