A mother was yesterday awarded maximum general damages of €31,400 against Irish Rail over the death of her 25-year-old daughter who fell out of the door of a train.
The type of doors in question, highlighted in a Health and Safety Executive report in the UK because of their associations with fatal accidents, are still being used on inter-city routes, a company spokesman said last night.
Ms Mary Walsh, a mother of six, of Lansdowne Park, Ennis Road, Limerick, was awarded a decree for the damages and costs at Thurles Circuit Court after her daughter Claire was killed when she fell from the Dublin-Cork train at Bishopswood, Dundrum, Co Tipperary, on June 15th, 1999.
Judge Olive Buttimer said she did not accept that Ms Walsh intentionally opened the door. She may have leaned against it due to the jolting of the train.
On the balance of probabilities there was a fault in the lock of the door, causing it to jam and open inadvertently, resulting in the tragic death of Ms Walsh.
Unfortunately and unbelievably, the company did not retain the door in question for inspection by the plaintiff's engineer. If proper communications had been maintained within the company then its maintenance staff would have been aware that the family of Ms Walsh were searching for a result in relation to the dreadful loss of their daughter and sister.
Ms Walsh had been travelling home to Limerick with her brother, David, following a 10-week holiday in Central and South America.
As the company signalled its intention to appeal the case, the judge said the family needed closure on the issue and ordered that the appeal proceed as quickly as possible.
The late Ms Walsh's father Liam, brother John and sister Siobhán, who were in court yesterday, welcomed the ruling.
In a statement issued by their solicitor, Mr Dan O'Gorman, the family said: "This case was not about money; it was about justice. The family are pleased that justice has been done. They wish for closure now and to get on with their lives. They wish to continue to mourn the loss of a bright, intelligent girl who had her whole live in front of her."
During the full hearing of the case at Tipperary Circuit Court on Thursday of last week, Mr Michael Delaney, counsel for Mary Walsh, said the carriages on the train had been operated by the company since 1975 and had manual doors that could only be opened from the inside by sliding down a window and reaching out to release an outside handle.
A report into this type of door by the Health and Safety Executive in the UK had highlighted 270 incidents between 1984 and 1991 in which people had either been killed or injured as a result of falling out of trains.
Spokesman for the company, Mr Barry Kenny, said yesterday that this make of door was still being used on a number of inter-city routes. The doors were well maintained by the company but would all be decommissioned within the next three years.
The court had heard how the father of the deceased had expressed his relief hours before the accident that his daughter and her younger brother David had returned home safe to Dublin Airport because there had just been an earthquake in South America.
David Walsh said he and his sister had got the 9 p.m. train from Heuston. They drank three-fifths of a bottle of vodka with passengers sitting close to them.
Claire went to the toilet about 10 minutes before they were due to change trains at Limerick Junction. She did not return and David was later informed her body had been found on the line about nine miles from Thurles.
The company expressed its sincere sympathy to the family.