Judge dismisses 'utterly opportunistic' claims for 'minor injuries' from Cork bus crash
The court heard that the bus driver just released the handbrake to take off when he noticed some of the boys out of their seats. He turned around to tell them to put on their seat belts. When he looked forward, he saw that the bus had rolled into the lorry stopped in front. File picture: Larry Cummins
“Purely and utterly opportunistic” is how a judge described cases taken against a serving garda and Foróige youth development organisation for "minor injuries" sustained in a bus crash in Cork.
Judge O’Donohoe dismissed the three cases with legal costs for the plaintiffs to pay and warned that such cases are costly to society and have become “a racket”.
Three males, Patrick Stokes, 18, of 16 St Anthony's Park, Knocknaheeney, Cork, and two other passengers who cannot be named because they are still minors, made the claims through their parents against an assortment of defendants including bus driver Garda Liam Linehan and the Fóroige national youth development organisation.
Garda Linehan had given up his day off to drive the males, who were all minors at the time, to a day out go-carting in Watergrasshill where they were also given lunch and ice cream before being driven home.
But Gda Linehan, a Juvenile Liaison Officer, said that on the journey some of the seven boys refused to wear their seat belts and were jumping around the bus.
This "high jinks" behaviour caused him to stop the bus on a number of occasions to insist that they sit down and fasten their seat belts on July 23, 2018, he said.
But on one occasion, when the minibus was facing down an incline on the North Ring Road stopped at traffic lights near The Glen in Cork city, Gda Linehan saw in his rearview mirror that a number of the youths had again got up from their seats.
He had just released the handbrake to take off when he noticed the disturbance. He turned around to tell them to put on their seat belts. When he looked forward, he saw that the bus had rolled into the lorry stopped in front, he said.
“I didn’t feel anything,” he said. “I’m surprised there were any injuries. I can’t understand it. As far as I’m concerned there was no impact.”
Barrister for one of the plaintiffs, Roger Pope, said more than €3,000 worth of damage was done to the vehicle which proved that the impact was not insignificant.
But Gda Linehan said that a disproportionate amount of damage was done because the bus made contact with large spikes on the rear of the lorry into which it rolled.
Barrister for another plaintiff, Alison McCarthy, argued that Gda Linehan should not have released the handbrake on the vehicle on an incline when he did.
However, barrister for the defendant, Kieran Hughes, said that Gda Linehan had only turned around that day because some of the plaintiffs had repeatedly refused to wear seatbelts and repeatedly refused to sit down.
All three plaintiffs claimed they had soft tissue injury and Patrick Stokes said that he had a scratch on his nose – he was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. The court heard that he had been unwell on the journey. One plaintiff also claimed that he suffered nightmares and bedwetting following the incident.
Although all three plaintiffs said they remembered being jerked forward in the collision, they said that they did not remember Gda Linehan repeatedly asking the boys to sit down and fasten their seat belts and having to stop the bus on a number of occasions to insist on it.
Judge O’Donohoe said that Gda Linehan “comes across as a wonderful man”, who in his attempt to help the Travelling community, from which the plaintiffs come, he had taken a day off work, unpaid, to help.
Judge O'Donohoe noted that the plaintiffs seem “decent boys” who wouldn’t have caused any more than the usual excitement that might be expected from boys of their age. However, when injuries are extremely minor, such cases should not be brought before the courts, he said.
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