Hill walker’s €40k award challenged in court

A woman with 40 years experience hill walking has told the High Court she was “black and blue on her right side” and in pain after gashing her knee on a nail after she fell on a rotting boardwalk on the Wicklow Way.

Teresa Wall said that after her fall her husband Damien had to “piggyback” her down the mountain because he was unable to get a mobile phone signal to call for help.

She said her foot had snagged in a hole in one of the old railway sleepers that made up a conservation boardwalk just below the JB Malone memorial on the Sally Gap to Djouce trail near Roundwood.

Mrs Wall was giving evidence on the first day of an appeal against the Circuit Court finding, that the National Parks and Wildlife Service was negligent and must pay her €40,000 damages. The case has significant implications for Ireland’s national parks.

Mrs Wall said the accident occurred around 4pm on August 6, 2013, when she and her husband had been coming down the mountain after a long walk on a boardwalk, which had been placed on the lands by the NPWS.

Mrs Wall, aged 60, from Rathingle Cottages, Swords, Co Dublin, suffered a gash to her right knee which required seven stitches. She said because of the injuries to her knee, she was only able to walk on flat terrain.

In its defence, the NPWS claims Ms Wall contributed to her injuries by not looking where she was going and said she had participated in an activity known to have risks. Under cross-examination by Brian Murray, counsel for the NWPS, Ms Wall said she had been looking where she was going when she fell.

In a judgment given last April, Judge Jacqueline Linnane at Dublin Circuit Court said Ms Wall was entitled to €40,000 damages plus her legal costs.

The NPWS appealed the decision to the High Court, which opened before Mr Justice Michael White yesterday and

is expected to last three days.