€18k for accident-prone loss assessor

An accident-prone loss assessor crashed her vehicle into the car of a man whose house was on fire at the time.

Linda Lydon’s crash at the scene of a Dublin house fire in December 2008 was one of a litany of car accidents she was involved in, resulting in her employer, Cleary’s Insurance Services, finally losing patience with Ms Lydon and sacking her in December 2010.

However, the Employment Appeals Tribunal has found that Ms Lydon’s accidents didn’t amount to gross misconduct and that she was unfairly dismissed, awarding her a total of €17,908.

In evidence at the hearing in Dublin, tribunal members were told that, on December 18, 2008, Ms Lydon’s office manager sent her to a house fire that was on the news. She was to distribute company brochures to the owners of a row of houses which were on fire.

The tribunal report on the incident stated that the area was busy with emergency services and journalists.

Having distributed the brochures, Ms Lydon was attempting to leave the area when she reversed her vehicle into the car of the man whose house was on fire.

The householder’s son had witnessed the incident and accused Ms Lydon of trying to leave the area.

Ms Lydon disputed this and explained that she had given out several brochures and had given her phone number to a neighbour.

The cost of the incident totalled €940, with Ms Lydon paying €500 and her employer paying the remainder.

In October 2010, Ms Lydon had another accident when her car hit a hoarding in a car-park when she veered to avoid a child. The incident caused minor damage to the car’s bodywork.

She was due to discuss the costs of the incident on November 11, 2010, but the meeting was postponed. The following day, she was involved in another accident, this time writing off her car when it mounted a median island and crashed into traffic lights that bent over with the impact.

The luckless driver said that she had been driving at 40km/h. Nobody was injured and Ms Lydon was not prosecuted.

At this stage, Ms Lydon — who was only on a provisional licence when initially employed in August 2008, only securing a full licence in October 2008 — suggested taking an advanced driving course as she wanted to restore her employer’s confidence in her driving.

During her employment with the firm, headquartered in Galway with offices in Dublin and Limerick, Ms Lydon was also caught speeding and using her mobile phone. Each incident saw her being issued with two penalty points.

Ms Lydon was on a written warning at the time of the November 2010 crash and was dismissed for gross misconduct as a result of an incident on December 12 2010.

Ms Lydon appealed against the decision internally, but the company’s finance manager upheld the sacking.

The financial manager felt that Ms Lydon didn’t take any personal responsibility for the accidents and believed the problem was not Ms Lydon’s technical ability to drive, but her attitude.