The High Court has awarded €128,521 in damages to a plaintiff who sufferedsignificant injuries after a truck rolled from a filling station and collided with his van in County Limerick.
Delivering an ex tempore judgment, Mr Justice Oisín Quinn observed that the plaintiff had not sought to exaggerate his injuries, remarking that “the medical evidence indicates that the plaintiff has had a difficult time of things”.
The accident occurred on 21 March 2023 when the plaintiff was driving along a public road and a truck rolled out from a filling station into the side of his vehicle after the driver allegedly failed to properly apply the brakes. The plaintiff exited his van unaided and later attended hospital, where examinations confirmed a fractured right clavicle. The injury failed to heal properly and required surgery under general anaesthesia in May 2023, during which metal plates and screws were inserted.
The plaintiff also experienced temporary eye problems, neck and shoulder pain, bruising from the seatbelt, headaches and anxiety while driving. Although the eye symptoms resolved, ongoing issues with the implanted hardware and persistent pain led to further surgery in March 2025 to remove the plate and screws.
The court heard that the plaintiff had previously suffered serious injuries in a childhood horse and cart accident and was in receipt of a means-tested disability allowance of €275.50 per week, while also working limited hours as a tiler.
Three principal evidential disputes arose during the proceedings. The first concerned whether the plaintiff would require ongoing physiotherapy into the future. Although the defendants argued that he had engaged in only minimal physiotherapy since the 2025 surgery, the court accepted that he continued to experience genuine mobility and strength difficulties. Mr Justice Quinn therefore awarded €5,763 for future physiotherapy costs, representing half of the plaintiff’s claim for six sessions annually for the remainder of his life.
The second issue concerned the plaintiff’s disability allowance and whether a substantial award of damages would reduce his entitlement. The court accepted that the allowance was likely to be reduced. Mr Justice Quinn rejected the suggestion that the plaintiff could avoid this consequence by gifting portions of the award to his children, describing that argument as “an imaginative proposition” but one which unfairly overlooked the compensatory purpose of damages. The court therefore awarded an additional €28,377 to reflect the likely reduction in disability payments.
The third dispute related to whether the plaintiff had sustained a distinct soft tissue neck injury in addition to the clavicle injury. The court accepted that he had.
Applying the Personal Injuries Guidelines, the court treated the clavicle injury as the dominant injury, placing it within the upper end of the category for serious shoulder injuries and valuing it at €65,000. The plaintiff’s anxiety symptoms, including headaches, sleeplessness and driving-related anxiety requiring his partner to take over driving on occasion, were valued at €22,500 before adjustment. The neck injury was valued at €17,500 and the temporary eyelid drooping at €1,000.
After applying a one-third discount to the cumulative value of the lesser injuries in accordance with the approach to multiple injuries, the court added an uplift of €27,333 to the dominant injury award, resulting in total general damages of €92,333.
Together with hospital fees of €2,068, future physiotherapy costs and compensation for the likely loss of disability allowance, the total award came to €128,521.