Man awarded €5,000 over assault by bus driver

The High Court has awarded €5,000 to a man over an assault by a bus driver during a road rage incident in which the man, who is black, was also racially abused.

Mr Justice Max Barrett was told the issue of legal costs in the case taken by Anthony Doran against Bus Éireann had been agreed between the parties.

Last week, the judge found, in the totality of the bus driver’s actions, an assault, which also consists of a reasonable apprehension of battery, had occurred.

The aggressive way the bus driver approached Mr Doran’s car and tone of his remarks had prompted Mr Doran to believe he was about to be hit and to instinctively recoil, the judge said.

Mr Doran, of Charlestown Place, St Margaret’s Road, Dublin, had appealed a Circuit Court decision dismissing his action against the bus company for assault, battery and false imprisonment.

Decision overturned

After overturning that decision in relation to assault only, Mr Justice Barrett indicated he had in mind an award of €5,000 damages for Mr Doran. The matter was put back for an order to be made.

When the case returned before him on Wednesday, the judge was told the €5,000 sum had been agreed between the parties, as had the costs of the case.

The incident occurred in Dublin city centre on February 28th, 2014, when Mr Doran’s car broke down and he had to pull into a bus stop.

A number of buses arrived and Mr Doran waved them on but one “acted differently” and the incident occurred, the judge said.

It was claimed Mr Doran had made a rude gesture to the bus driver before the confrontation.

Mr Justice Barrett said he preferred the version of events given by Mr Doran to that given by the bus driver and one of his company colleagues who witnessed the incident.

The judge said it was a sad irony that Mr Doran, “an Irishman who is black, was racially abused by a white man who has come to this country from abroad and thus might himself be exposed - unacceptably if it were to occur - to some form of intolerance”.