Bohan v Longford County Council

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: McLOUGHLIN J.
• Judgment Date: 11 November 1971
• Neutral Citation: 1965 WJSC-HC 2168
• Court: High Court
• Date: 11 November 1971

1965 WJSC-HC 2168

Bohan v. Longford County Council

JUDGMENT IN

JOHN BOHAN

v.

LONGFORD COUNTY COUNCIL

McLOUGHLIN J.

Delivered on 11th November 1971 in Dublin in Circuit appeal,

W.2379

1 The plaintiff in this case was injured as a result of a motor car which he was driving leaving the roadway and falling into a dyke at the side of the road. The road was described in evidence as being 14 ft wide with a fairly good tarred surface, straight for about ½ mile in the direction in which the plaintiff was proceeding and leading to a bridge over a canal which bridge crosses the canal at a right angle to it necessitating a sharp bend first to the right and then a sharp bend to the left once the crossing is negotiated. The two bends are at a distance from each other not much more than the width of the canal so that the second bend needs to be negotiated very soon after taking the first bend. The road is clearly a bye-road between two villages and the plaintiff's engineer further said the bridge was of a type which is usual where a bye-road crosses over a railway or canal.

2 The plaintiff in evidence said he was never on this road before. It was dark night the time being about 2 a.m. He was driving on the straight coming to the bridge at about 35 m.p.h. and when about 70 yards away saw what he took to be a normal bend and slowed to 25 m.p.h. When on the bridge he was doing about 15 to 20 m.p.h. and found that he could not take the left hand bend and the car went off the road into a hollow on the right hand side.

3 The case sought to be made against the County Council was that this road had at one time been a narrower 10 to 11 feet wide road with a water bound surface upon which the speed of motor cars would be restricted, and that by widening the road and improving the surface an invitation was extended to motorists to travel at speed which was unsafe for negotiating the sharp bends across the canal. As it was put by Counsel for the plaintiff the allegation was that the work which the County Council carried out constituted a trap.

4 The circumstances under which the work was done was given in evidence by Mr. Timothy Foley who was for 22 years up to January of that year County Engineer for the County of Longford. His evidence was that this road was repaired at low cost in the years 1953 and 1954 by surfacing what was formerly a water-bound road with tarred chippings to provide a better surface for motor traffic,...