Radfahrer „sind in Dublin zu einem Albtraum geworden“, sagt Richter und kürzt die Verletzungsprämie um 80 Prozent

maybe i am wrong but this seems like an unusual take by the judge, not often you would read somthing like this where the injured party would be seen to be so contributory to the incident

wonder will it be appealed..

Few Extracts below.

“You never know with cyclists what they are going to do or anticipate what they are going to do,” Judge O’Donohoe told the Circuit Civil Court. “Cyclists have become a nightmare in Dublin.”

He said he was entitled, as one who drives cars in the city, to take judicial notice of his own experiences as a motorist.“

“ Mr Giurgila conceded that he had not been wearing a helmet or hi-vis safety vest, had no lights on his bike, and had not given any signal of his intention to turn right out of a bus and cycle lane into the path of following traffic“

„Judge O’Donohoe reduced the €50,000 award for the brain injury to €10,000 and applied 80pc reductions to the “uplift” awards for soft tissue injuries, resulting in a total award of €17,628 to Giurgila, along with Circuit Court costs.“

Finally, a bit of common sense from the judge, too many cyclists act like the rules of the road don’t matter to them.

> Judge James O’Donohoe decided that the injured cyclist was mainly responsible for the accident, which had taken place in darkness at 6am on a September morning in 2020

> Mr Giurgila conceded that he had not been wearing a helmet or hi-vis safety vest, had no lights on his bike, and had not given any signal of his intention to turn right out of a bus and cycle lane into the path of following traffic.

> The judge said he was taking into consideration the fact that Mr Finnegan had obviously seen Mr Giurgila, and had beeped his horn, having seen him behave erratically in the joint bus-cycle lane, without having reduced his speed to a level where he may have been able to avoid a collision.

These seem to be the three main reasons he assigned blame 80-20 to the cyclist.

Yknow what’s a nightmare in Dublin?

Having to share a lane with 18 tonne double decker buses while on your 12kg pedal bike.

The cyclist in question is undoubtably the worst of us. He had taken absolutely no care whatsoever. No lights, no helmet, no signalling, and he shouldn’t have gotten a penny because the accident was entirely his own fault. He is lucky the Irish system is so lenient.

But that comment should not be allowed to stand for a judge.

I will add that bus drivers SHOULD actually cross into the next lane as if passing a car, like many car drivers do, to pass out cyclists, but obviously that defeats the purpose of the bus lane.

Edit, because I had to:

The real problem here is twofold.

1) The infrastructure and it’s our politicians who have created this nightmare, not cyclists.

2) Most motorists don’t need to be using their car as often as they do. Reasonable exceptions apply for a bucket load of children or a disability.

Cycling is by far the most efficient modality and you can do most of your city travelling on a bike or on public transport. I cycle 40-50 minutes into work (and same back) and Im home before most motorists at peak hours, and the same time as many bus users.

Whatever about the specifics of this case, it seems like a wildly unprofessional thing to say as a judge.

You love to see it.
Im sure many on here will be moaning.
Some of yall literally refuse to wear safety gear!!

Great news. Anyone who commutes in Dublin knows how much of a scourge cyclists are. Nice to see the justice system doing something to tackle this and hopefully it sends a message to all cyclists to cop onto themselves

Nice to see some common sense prevail here, all for protecting cyclists on the road but christ some make it hard for motorists.