A judge has thrown out personal injury claims totalling €120,000 saying there was a “large question mark” over the honesty of both claimants . A third plaintiff withdrew a €60,000 claim.
Circuit Court President Mr Justice Raymond Groarke said he found evidence of a car filling up with dense smoke to such a degree as to blind the driver and cause him to crash into a tree, to be incredible.
He said a man injured in the crash had maintained the driver had been blinded by oncoming bright headlights and had not mentioned smoke until cross-examined by barrister Paul O’Neill, counsel for Aviva Insurance which fought the claims.
Unreal
The judge said a woman injured in the crash had sworn she could only breathe in the car by filtering air through an article of her clothing. “It’s incredible…unreal if these stories are untrue,” Judge Groarke said.
He had heard Detective Sergeant Mark Ashford tell the court how he had been unable to find trace nor sign of smoke or fumes in the Ford Galaxy Aspen following the single vehicle accident at Phibsboro Avenue, Dublin, in March 2012.
Detective Sergeant Ashford said his suspicions had immediately been aroused when the allegedly injured passengers kept moving in and out of ambulances that had been called to the scene. It had been difficult identifying who was who but eventually they had been ferried in ambulances to three Dublin hospitals.
“There was no evidence of broken bones, bruising, lacerations or eye discolouration that might have been consistent with carbon monoxide fumes in the car,” Sgt Ashford told Mr O’Neill who appeared with BLM Solicitors for Aviva.
Non-existent address
Detective Sergeant Ashford said the driver and occupants of the vehicle simply disappeared following their attendance at the hospitals. Garda phone calls had gone unanswered and letters to an address given to gardaí had been returned. The address, 64 Racecourse Lawn, Tralee, did not exist and did not have an Eircode reference.
John O’Connor, Drumcondra, who saw the crash, told Mr O’Neill that when he ran to the car to help the occupants the driver wound down his window. There had been no signs of smoke.
Insurance
An Aviva underwriter said the car driver and co-defendant Mihai Agache, also Tralee, had taken out insurance cover on February 28th, less than three weeks before the accident. Five days after the accident the policy had been cancelled and a refund cheque issued to Mr Agache and later cashed.
Judge Groarke dismissed €60,000 claims by the two Romanian nationals, mother of four Maria Petronela Moisa, Tralee, Co Kerry, and Sorin Moisa, also Tralee and awarded Aviva their costs against them. Mr O’Neill successfully applied for a costs order against Traian Rezmives who had withdrawn a €60,000 claim just before the trial opened.
The judge said that at the very least the driver’s window would have been opened if the car had been filled with smoke. It had been closed, according to independent witness John O’Connor and the passengers had said they remained in the car for up to 10 minutes.
Judge Groarke said the occupants had claimed they did not know the driver Mihai Agache who had lifted them at Dublin Airport and had got so lost he ended up at the crash scene in Phibsboro Avenue on his way to Tralee. Mr Agache had mail addressed to the same Tralee address as some of his passengers.
“I cannot believe either claimant,” Judge Groarke said. “There is a very large question mark over their honesty.”