A judge has described an agreement by Irish Rail to pay the life long care costs of a man who was severely injured in a work accident as ‘forward-looking’.
Mr. Justice Nicolas Kearns yesterday approved the 160,000 euro annual payment for the 40-year-old security guard.
The man was left brain damaged when a sliding steel gate came off its rollers and fell on him at the Irish Rail Midland yard in North Wall in Dublin in 2005.
Personal injury lawyer Noel Sheridan explains why the settlement is seen as historic.
“In the past in Ireland we’ve been hampered here by a situation where our system doesn’t cope very well with this kind of catastrophic injury case” he said.
“In such cases in the past we’ve had to compile detailed costings of future care and future loss for the plaintiff like this unfortunate man”.
“How can we predict whether a man is going to live 10, 15, 20 years” he added.
