Kelliher v Tipperary (N. R) Board of Health

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 12 May 1938
• Date: 12 May 1938
• Court: Supreme Court

[S. C., I.F.S.]

Kelliher

and

Tipperary (N. R.) Board of Health

Fatal accident - Highway - Motor lorry colliding at night with lighted wall - Excavated clay by roadside -Warning red lamps - Electricity Supply Board's lamp lighting wall - Whether light and warning lamps misleading and embarrassing.

Plaintiff, as administratrix of her husband, sought to recover damages, under the Fatal Accidents Act, 1846, for loss sustained through the death of her husband, which she alleged had been caused by the negligence of the two defendants, a Board of Health and their contractor, L.,in leaving a dangerous and insufficiently lighted obstruction upon the highway at a bridge outside the town of Roscrea on he main road from that town to Limerick. On the day of the accident the defendant L., under his contract with the defendant Boar of Health, had executed certain excavation works in the main road, and had left, on the north side of the bridge, excavated clay heaped up on each side of the excavation to a height of 4 feet 6 inches, leaving a passage on the main road of only 12 feet 6 inches wide. The normal width of the road was 40 feet. Upon the bridge itself on the night of the accident an angle was formed by the excavated clay and the western wall of the bridge. In this angle there was a large tool shed. Seventy-two yards from the hut in the direction of Limerick there had been placed a warning sign-board with a three-way danger signal lamp, visible for some hundreds of yards, as the road was straight. There were similar lamps on the corner of the passage left open and upon the mound of clay. Approaching from Limerick, three red lights could be seen on the right hand side. On the southwestern pier of the bridge there was a lamp hanging 18 feet above road level which threw a powerful light downwards upon the wall of the bridge and also illuminated the end of the tool shed but did not light the mound of clay. The night of the accident was fine and the road was dry. Plaintiff's husband had travelled from Tralee in his lorry, with a companion B., the lorry being in good condition with good brakes and lights. The accident occurred at about 12 midnight when the plaintiff's husband was driving. B., who had been driving, was lying back resting with his eyes closed. The brakes were suddenly applied and B. opened his eyes to see the lorry within about its own length away from the bridge wall into which it...