Boy, 8, awarded €12k for psychological injuries after car accident

An eight-year-old boy has been awarded €12,000 for psychological injuries and emotional upset suffered as a result of a car accident in Dublin when he was a toddler.

The accident happened at North King Street in Dublin February 2014 when the boy was aged two, civil proceedings at Dublin District Court heard.

Counsel told Judge Michael Coghlan that the boy was a passenger in a car driven by his mother and he had been restrained. The car was hit by the defendant’s vehicle.

The court heard the boy suffered emotional upset and was psychologically injured which led to “somewhat sensitive” physical symptoms which were not read out during the hearing.

The symptoms persisted but in January this year the child’s doctor said there had been “some improvement” and counsel added that it had been incremental.

Judge Coghlan praised the applicant’s lawyers for the documentation they produced relating to the impact on the child. This was unlike other cases, he said, where an accident had just one recent report, about an accident several years before, saying the child was now well.

He described that approach as a “useless exercise” and added the case presented was the "very converse of that".

The court heard the case involved a “considerable number of medical reports”.

The settlement offer of €12,000 was fair and he was minded to approve it, Judge Coghlan said.

He directed that the money was to be paid into court funds on behalf of the boy until he reaches full age.

He also awarded €600 for expenses and €1,200 in legal costs.