Woman who claimed Garda car ran over her foot has award cut by 80%

A woman, who claimed a Garda car crushed and broke three bones in her foot as it drove through hundreds of street revellers, has been told by a judge she was 80 per cent responsible for her injuries.

Sinead Foley (25), an accounts administrator, said she had been drinking with hundreds of others alongside The Barge Pub near Ranelagh, Dublin on a sunny evening in May 2017 when an unmarked detective car ran over her foot as she walked towards the toilet in the pub.

Ms Foley, of Derry Drive, Crumlin, Dublin 12, was awarded €25,860 against the Minister for Expenditure but saw it slashed to just over €5,000 when Judge Sinead Ni Chulachain in the Circuit Civil Court held the Garda driver only 20 per cent responsible.

Ms Foley, who was 19 at the time of the incident, told the court she had a maximum of three drinks with friends after they had joined several hundred people drinking and milling around outside the pub and on the banks of the canal.

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She told her barrister Brian Sugrue that as she stepped off a kerb the car, which she said she had previously not seen despite having looked both ways, ran over her left foot. Later in hospital X-rays revealed three bones had been fractured in her foot.

The Garda driver of the car and a Garda passenger said the vehicle had been moving slowly through the throng of people at between 5km/h and 10km/h when they saw Foley, who had been standing with her back to the road, turn and go over on her ankle, falling across the bonnet of their vehicle.

Both gardaí said the front wheel of their car had not at any time struck Ms Foley’s foot although they had afterwards both seen her shoe hanging on to her foot only by its strap.

Judge Ni Chulachain said she was absolutely satisfied the garda car had been travelling extremely slowly and if Ms Foley had looked she would have seen it coming. “The car was virtually stopped and I am satisfied liability for the impact with the car was caused 80 per cent by Ms Foley,” she said.

The judge said it was a very painful experience for Ms Foley and measured damages at €25,860. She made a decree for €5,172 with District Court costs and certificates for both her counsel and forensic engineer who had given evidence.