A pensioner who suffered severe injuries in a road accident which left three teenagers dead is understood to have secured more than €300,000 in settlement of his High Court action for damages.
Firefighters had to use cutting equipment to free the dead and injured from the wreckage after the car with the three young people careered across the road and ploughed into Thomas Cooney's car on July 24th, 2003.
In his High Court proceedings, Mr Cooney, a farmer from Abbington, Murroe, Co Limerick, sued the insurers of the owner of the 1991-registered car which crashed into him. The case proceeded as an assessment of damages only and a settlement was reached yesterday.
President of the High Court Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan was told the crash scene just outside Hospital, Co Limerick, was "traumatic and horrific" and all the young occupants of the other car were killed instantly.
They were James Ryan (19), Castelfarm, Hospital; Séamus Keogh (18), Ballinard, Herbertstown; and Naomi Mulcahy (16), also from Ballinard.
David Kennedy SC, for Mr Cooney, said his client spent three weeks in hospital, six weeks in a nursing home and underwent surgery.
He said Mr Cooney had also contracted the MRSA bug and was now permanently in a wheelchair. His injuries had finished his farming career and he was no longer able to go to GAA matches.