Tadgh Kelly Solicitor, who heads-up our Private Client Services has been awarded a first-class honours Masters Degree in Laws from the Law Society of Ireland School of Law.
His main area of research as part of his Masters programme was in the area of head injury arising out of car on bicycle collisions, paying particular attention to the courts view of the efficacy of the bicycle crash helmet in injury prevention and the degree of reduction in awards in compensation for the non-wearing of a bicycle crash helmet.
When asked why he wanted to focus on this particular topic, he replied,
it is an area of law into which there really was a dearth of research into why the courts and practitioners in Ireland seem to automatically assume a certain level of reduction in awards for head injuries in such collisions notwithstanding that a bicycle helmet is obliged to be designed to offer protection to the brain in lateral falls of no greater than 12 miles per hour.
Obviously the velocity of impact for most car on bicycle collisions is far in excess of this speed and as such the question must be posed as to whether is it just an equitable to adopt wholesale reductions in an awards for the non-wearing of a helmet when the helmet may have had little or no efficacy in the prevention of the injuries sustained. The English courts in this area are emphatic in refusing to make such reductions for catastrophic brain injury arising out of high impact collisions but alas the jury is still out in Ireland….”
To contact Tadgh, please email tkelly@pearts.ie