Thread by @NoonanJoe

People are not entitled to suddenly open doors without checking - Judge
#driving #MobilePhone #cycling #harming irishtimes.com/crime-law/cour…

This happened near Memorial Park, Islandbridge, Dublin.

The van driver’s door suddenly opened in the path of the man travelling by bike.

The injured man said the driver had been on his phone while seated in the van as he heard him speaking on it just as the door opened.

He was catapulted across the road. The driver had come over to him and said: “I didn’t see you. Are you okay?”

#SMIDSY #InattentionalBlindness

The judge preferred the victim’s account of what had happened over that of the driver.

The man had suffered a fracture to his left wrist and abrasions to his right leg when thrown from his bicycle.

Note: Case illustrates that judges are well able to decide who to believe.

So the brush off line sometimes given to people reporting events at a Garda Station that ‘It’s your word against theirs’ has no basis in law.

That is part of the daily diet of the Courts.

That applies in all courts both civil and criminal.

Different standards of proof apply, but a persons first hand testimony is evidence. The other party denying everything makes the judges job harder, but it does not justify a refusal to act on a complaint that merits action.

Here are the missing apostrophes 🙂 ‘ ‘

It’s good to see this reported in the IT.

It would be even better if the van door was not given a fictitious agency. It did not open itself. A driver did it.

And the focus on the money displaces the fact that the victim suffered injuries including a broken wrist.

#WordChoices