Former Rose of Tralee Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin was awarded €20,000 damages yesterday for whiplash injuries she suffered in a fall on a bus.
Gabriel Gavigan, counsel for the UCD student, told Judge Joseph Matthews in the Circuit Civil Court that Ms Ní Shúilleabháin, Rose of Tralee in 2005, fell on the stairs of a double-deck bus which had been caused to stop suddenly.
He said her claim had been settled following talks with Clodagh Gleeson, counsel for Dublin Bus, and Barney Quirke, counsel for taxi driver John Byrne, who was alleged to have swerved in front of the bus.
Mr Gavigan told the court it had been agreed between the two defendants that Dublin Bus would pay 30 per cent of the €20,000 award and Mr Byrne, of St Canice's Park, Glasnevin, Dublin, would pay 70 per cent.
Ms Ní Shúilleabháin, of Claremorris, Co Mayo, but with a Dublin address, claimed that on January 29th, 2004, she was a passenger on the 46A bus at Suffolk Street, Dublin, when it had stopped suddenly, throwing her backwards down the stairs.
The next day her GP, Dr Hugh Byrne, of University College Dublin, had found bruising to her right buttock, lower ribs and thorax, with tenderness to her neck, shoulders, lower back and groin.