High Court awards €69,000 to delivery driver who caught foot in pothole

The High Court has awarded €69,000 to a part-time van driver who injured his knee when his foot went into a pothole while he was making a delivery.

Edward Hickey (50), of Drombeg, Athlacca, Co Limerick, sued Tipperary County Council for negligence over the accident on Old Cork Road, Newport, Co Tipperary, on August 28th, 2018. The council denied the claim.

Mr Justice Anthony Barr accepted expert evidence on behalf of Mr Hickey that the pothole on the road was caused due to the “hazardous state of the area”. This, the judge accepted, was due to the fact that defective repairs had been carried out there prior to the accident. He was satisfied that liability rested with the defendant.

The judge said Mr Hickey was delivering a parcel when he drove his van alongside the wall of the customer’s house on Old Cork Road.

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He parked his van so the driver’s side was nearest to the wall of the property. He emerged from the van and walked around to open the side door on the passenger side of the van.

He retrieved a parcel from his van, took one or two steps backwards and his right foot went into a hole in the surface of the road. Mr Hickey said the hole measured some two feet in diameter and approximately eight inches in depth. He stumbled, but he did not fall to the ground.

He experienced immediate severe pain in his right knee but brought the parcel to the front door of the house and the house owner gave him a cup of water. He tried to continue his working day but was unable to do so and later attended his GP.

He was unable to work for about five months afterwards and was unable to return as a part-time League of Ireland club coach in February 2019.

He underwent various treatments to try to deal with the pain caused by the injury to his knee but it was eventually recommended that he undergo keyhole joint surgery.

Mr Justice Barr accepted evidence from Mr Hickey’s engineer that the pothole may have been visible to a pedestrian approaching it from a distance, but it would not necessarily have been readily apparent to someone like Mr Hickey who had driven up to the area where the hole was. He found no contributory negligence on Mr Hickey’s part.

Mr Hickey suffered a significant injury to his knee, he said.

While his knee was asymptomatic prior to the accident, the injury was superimposed upon reasonably extensive pre-existing degenerative changes in the knee, he said. It appeared that these were rendered symptomatic as a result of the accident, he said.

The judge accepted Mr Hickey’s evidence that prior to the accident he did not experience significant pain in his right knee.

He also accepted his evidence that he had been able to work as a part-time goalkeeping coach and as a van driver (prior to the accident) but that due to his ongoing knee symptoms, he has had to give up both these forms of employment. He now works as an administrator in an accommodation centre.

He awarded him €69,000.