Former Dunnes worker gets €15k over trolley injury

A Dunnes Stores sales assistant who was injured when a heavy tray of bread loaves fell on her at work, has been awarded €15,000 damages in the Circuit Civil Court.

Barrister John Quirke told Judge Terence O’Sullivan that in March 2012 Jessica Kelty was pushing a two-metre high trolley when the top tray of bread fell off and struck her on the head.

Ms Kelty, 23, of Brookfield Drive, Tallaght, Dublin, said the trolley was almost twice as big as she was. She had been knocked to the ground and felt dizzy afterwards.

Judge O’Sullivan was told on March 22, 2012, she had been helping to stock shelves in Dunnes Stores, Tallaght, where she worked as a sales assistant. She had been sent to the stockroom to bring a trolley of bread and pastry and as she pushed it forward the top tray had fallen, striking and cutting her head.

Ms Kelty, who was 19 at the date of the accident and who is now a hairdresser, said she had been given first aid by another Dunnes employee before attending at the accident and emergency department in Tallaght Hospital where she had been detained overnight.

After the accident, she had suffered headaches as well as neck pain. She had self-medicated with painkillers she bought at a pharmacy but still suffered neck pain.

Shane English, counsel for Dunnes, told the court that the company had accepted liability and the court hearing was for the purpose of assessing damages.

Mr English told the court the company was challenging Ms Kelty’s evidence that she had suffered “a significant injury” which still affected her work.

Judge O’Sullivan said he did not think Ms Kelty had been knocked unconscious and did not think there had been contributory negligence on her part. He said she had “a fairly nasty time of it” and her medical notes recorded she complained of neck pain subsequently.

Judge O’Sullivan, awarding her €15,000 damages, said she had not been looking after herself and had not gone for physiotherapy. He said she had not attended her doctor for more than three years after the accident. The court concluded she “wasn’t that badly hurt.”

Following an application by Mr English for a stay on his order pending consideration of an appeal, the judge said he would allow a stay on terms of an immediate payment of €10,000 to Ms Kelty.