No wrongdoing by surviving driver in fatal collision, High Court finds

The High Court has dismissed a fatal injuries claim over a road traffic collision after finding the evidence fell short of establishing any wrongdoing on the part of the defendant.

The action centred around the death of Cara Lee O’Brien in a road traffic collision nearly a decade ago.

In a judgment, Mr Justice Paul Coffey commended the “noble efforts” of plaintiff Caroline O’Brien’s legal team in their attempts to secure a benefit of €24,500 together with other damages for her late daughter’s statutory dependants, including her 11-year-old son.

Caroline O’Brien has been the primary carer to her grandson since the death of his mother, Cara Lee O’Brien.

However, the judge was “compelled as a matter of law” to find that the evidence did not establish any fault on the part of Oliver Nuzum, who was the other driver involved in the fatal collision near Raheenashkeagh in Co Wexford.

There were no witnesses to the 2013 incident that led to Cara Lee O’Brien’s death at the age of 23, when her son was three years old. Mr Nuzum, of Coolgreany, Co Wexford, sustained serious injuries and has no memory of the incident, the judge said.

It was not disputed, said Mr Justice Coffey, that immediately prior to the collision Ms O’Brien’s car was rotating, causing it to approach Mr Nuzum’s oncoming vehicle in a sideways position in the middle of his carriageway.

Another driver gave evidence that Ms O’Brien had overtaken her at a “reasonable speed” seconds before the collision, which occurred in a 100-metre straight stretch in the middle of an ‘S’ bend.

A Garda forensic collision investigator said the evidence from the scene suggested the cause of the incident lay with the deceased, while Mr Nuzum had “no options available to him to avoid the collision”. These conclusions arose from speculation based on his findings that Ms O’Brien’s Honda started to oversteer as it negotiated the bend, said the judge.

Counsel for Caroline O’Brien, of The Ballagh, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, said at the opening of the case that, due to the death of Cara Lee O’Brien and the fact Mr Nuzum has no recollection of the incident, he could not state what happened or exclude the possibility of wrongdoing on the part of the deceased.

Mr Justice Coffey was satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Nuzum was not on a phone call at the time of the accident and was not distracted by his phone, as had been countered as a possibility by the plaintiff’s side.

A “counter speculation”, presented by the plaintiff’s counsel, that Mr Nuzum had veered onto the incorrect side of the road, was “wholly unsupported by any circumstantial evidence”, said the judge. This hypothesis was not advanced by counsel as the only or even as the more probable explanation for the accident, he noted. It is, therefore, “incapable in law” of proving the plaintiff’s case to the civil standard of proof, he said.

The judge was satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, absent any evidence to suggest she slowed down as she entered the bend, that Ms O’Brien was likely to have been traveling more than the speed limit. This, he said, could have contributed to oversteering and losing control of her car as she negotiated the bend.

Mr Justice Coffey noted that the emergency created a life-threatening situation for Mr Nuzum. A normal driver reaction in the circumstances was likely to have been “raw terror” which would dull one’s reaction speed, he said.

Dismissing the claim, the judge said this is a “very sad case” and expressed his sympathy to Ms O’Brien’s family.