Kerry woman whose car was rear-ended in traffic collision awarded €55k
Sinéad Malone Walker, 46, of Gleannrua, Rathmore, Co Kerry, sued over the accident on February 22, 2016, when she was driving her son to an occupational therapy appointment in Tralee.
A woman who suffered neck and shoulder injuries in a rear-ending accident has been awarded more than €55,000 by the High Court.
Sinéad Malone Walker, 46, of Gleannrua, Rathmore, Co Kerry, sued over the accident on February 22, 2016, when she was driving her son to an occupational therapy appointment in Tralee.
The court heard she noticed an oncoming vehicle crossing over to her side of the road and, fearing a head-on collision, she applied her brakes and a vehicle travelling behind her collided with the rear of her car.
She sued the driver of the vehicle which rear-ended her, Sara Twomey of Curran's Cross, Roundford, Co Kerry, and the driver of the oncoming vehicle, Thomas Rhys, care of AXA Insurance, Wolfe Tone Street, Dublin.
Liability was admitted and the case went before Ms Justice Emily Egan for assessment only.
The judge said there was unchallenged evidence from Ms Malone Walker, a mother of three who works as a receptionist, that there was a substantial impact and there was €6,000 damage to her car.
She had previously been involved in two traffic accidents. One was in 1993 when she sustained a neck injury but she did not bring proceedings over that.
The second was in 2006 or 2007, in which she again sustained a neck injury and over which proceedings were brought.
The judge said it was common case between the parties that she had recovered from the effects of both of these prior injuries by the time of the most recent (2016) accident.
Ms Malone Walker's evidence was that, up to the present time, six years after the accident, her pain has never gone away. She experiences pain in her neck on an almost constant basis, being at a level of five or six out of 10 every day, she said.
The judge said having considered all the evidence, including expert medical evidence from both sides, she was led to conclude Ms Malone Walker was somewhat unwilling to admit to herself of the improvement in her symptoms. The judge, however, did not believe she was in any sense attempting to deliberately exaggerate her symptoms.
Rather, after several years of pain, the judge thought she "has become exhausted and discouraged by her symptoms".
She found that although Ms Malone Walker herself may on occasion still perceive pain at a higher level, as of the present time, her symptoms could reasonably be described as intermittent and as either mild or at the lower end of moderate.
The judge found her past and current symptoms were caused, or were substantially caused, by the accident.
She awarded her €55,340.
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