A television tea-break probably saved Mr Donald Gregan's life, a court was told yesterday.
Mr Gregan (72), a retired carpenter, was in the kitchen when a van ploughed through the front wall of his home into the living room at Baskin Lane, Cloghran, Co Dublin, in May 1999.
Judge Elizabeth Dunne awarded Mr Cregan €17,500 in damages, saying that he had suffered significantly in what were the twilight years of his life.
Mr Paul McGettigan, counsel for Mr Gregan, told the Circuit Civil Court that his client had been sitting in the living room only seconds earlier watching TV.
He had heard a "loud bang" and had felt the house shake. When he went to investigate, he found a van in the centre of his partly-demolished living room, almost where he had been sitting.
Counsel said that Mr Gregan had not been physically injured, but he had afterwards suffered serious post-traumatic stress and depression as a result of the crash.
Mr Cregan, who was 68 when the accident occurred, told the court that his social and domestic life had fallen apart. He had stopped playing golf and socialising and he had great difficulty going anywhere in his car because of the fear of an accident.
The court heard that Mr Gregan had experienced a marked feeling of unreality in the immediate aftermath of the accident and had been dazed.
His mood had become increasingly depressed for months afterwards. He experienced difficulty relaxing and had been unable to settle down to watch television.
When his house had been repaired he became restless and would constantly wander about the house and into the garden.
He had received counselling and had attended a consultant psychiatrist.
He told counsel for the van-owner, Mr Brendan O'Herlihy, who trades as Leinster Jet Wash, that six other members of his family, some of whom had not been in the house at the time, had already been compensated by Mr O'Herlihy's insurance company.
Judge Dunne said that the van had driven through Mr Gregan's front garden and had caused considerable and substantial damage to his home.
What had happened was the last thing anyone sitting in their home watching television would have expected.