JONATHAN CAMPBELL (A MINOR) V GILLIAN SIMPSON

Belfast County Court
15 June 2004
District Judge Wells Sitting As A Deputy County Court Judge

This accident occurred on 26th April 1998 on the Victoria Road, Carrickfergus, Co.Antrim. A 6 year old minor Plaintiff had just disembarked from a bus and a supervisor was holding the minor Plaintiff's hand to escort him across the road where the Plaintiff's mother was waiting for him. The minor Plaintiff was escorted across the front of the stationary bus and at the edge of the bus the supervisor stopped to check for traffic. Just at that point the minor Plaintiff broke free from the supervisor and darted across the road and was in collision with the Defendant who was overtaking the stationary bus.

The Defendant entered Victoria Road just shortly before the accident locus and as she approached the stationary bus she took her foot off the accelerator and travelled out approximately 2 to 3 feet away from the bus.

Just as she was about to pass the front of the bus the minor Plaintiff ran out and within a split second a collision occurred.

His Honour Deputy County Court Judge Wells held that the Defendant had not been negligent because her speed was not excessive and she had not been travelling too close to the bus and therefore the case was dismissed.

In the minor Plaintiff's mother's police statement she herself accepted that her son "darted" from the supervisor's grasp and ran out in front of the bus towards her and that he gave the Defendant no chance of avoiding contact with minor Plaintiff. Even in her evidence the minor Plaintiff's mother accepted that there was very little the Defendant could have done to have avoided the accident.

The minor Plaintiff had suffered a left clavicular fracture and extensive abrasion injuries together with a close head injury but he made a full recovery.