Court awards €2.45m to student for head injuries

A student who was training to be an electrician suffered head injuries in a car crash that have left him with serious communication difficulties and today he was awarded €2.45m in compensation.

Conor Barry, 26, from Grange, Castlemartyr, Co Cork was a back seat passenger in a car that crashed at a bridge near Midleton on June 17, 1998.

He has been left with such serious communication difficulties that he relies on printed cards to communicate.

Dr John O’Mahony, SC, said the family were extremely supportive of Conor since the accident, which happened when he was in the second year of his studies to be an electrician.

In what was described as a tragic case, Dr O’Mahony said the young man was unable to speak and he gave examples of some of the cards used by Mr Barry that he uses to get through each day.

On a couple of occasions he got lost and found it very distressing trying to make his way home.

One of the cards he now carries at all times asks the question, ‘Can you please tell me the time of the next bus to Castlemartyr?’

Other cards consist of simple greetings or requests for help should the need arise.

The award was approved by the President of the High Court Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan sitting at Camdon Quay Cork today.

Most of the money will be used to pay for nursing care and occupational therapy for the young man.

He will need nursing care to some degree for the rest of his life.

Because the case is one involving a serious head injury, an application will follow at a later stage to have the young man made a ward of court.

The defendants in the case were the driver of the car, in which Conor Barry was a back seat passenger, Noreen Tattan of Chapel Road, Ballycotton and Cork County Council.

Dr O’Mahony said both defendants were jointly represented and that the settlement offer in the case was made on behalf of both of them.

The senior counsel explained that Cork County Council were defendants because the car collided with a road barrier near the bridge.

"This is a very tragic case but in the circumstances it is a very good result and his lawyers are to be complimented," Mr Justice Finnegan said.

"It is very clear that his family are very good to him but we have to look at the time when the family won’t be there to look after him."

Conor Barry has been receiving beneficial therapy at Headway Ireland at their Ballincollig base since the accident occurred six years ago.