‘Tipsy’ pedestrian struck by hackney

A judge said he was not going to penalise a person for walking on a country road at night — when no public transport was available — in a civil case in which a tipsy pedestrian sued a hackney driver for negligence after being struck by a wing mirror of the car near Ardfert village.

Cleaner and shop worker Kevin McElligott, now aged 24, of Upper Tullig, Kilflynn, Ardfert, had been on his way from a party. It was around 10.30pm and he was on the wrong side of the road, at dusk, and without high-visibility clothing, on the night of June 3, 2013, when he was knocked into the ditch and suffered injuries to his left wrist and right hand.

Medical evidence referred to by Mr McElligott’s his barrister Richard Liston outlined how he had suffered amnesia and a mild head injury in the accident.