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A four-year-old boy was stranded and screaming on a railway platform when a Luas driver closed the doors before his mother could get off the tram, a judge heard today.
Attorney Fran Rooney told Judge John O’Connor in Circuit Civil Court that Transdev Dublin Light Rail had offered Adam Fleming, now 10 years old, € 40,000 in damages to settle his personal injury claim.
Rooney, who appeared with Paul Byrne of B&P Byrne Solicitors, said that Adam had been riding the Luas line with his mother, Tracey Connolly, in December 2014. At the Bluebell stop, the boy had left the tram first and was in the platform. when the doors closed on his mother, leaving him stranded.
Rooney said that Ms Connolly, from Bernard Curtis House, Bluebell, Dublin, had not been able to leave the Luas until the next stop in Blackhorse and return another Luas to her terrified son.
He said that he had found Adam shocked and traumatized and unable to make his position known to others due to the panic he was feeling at the time. Since then, the boy had been treated under the care of two doctors, but he was still fearful and anxious and had developed a clingy attitude towards his parents and relatives.
Rooney told the court that following settlement negotiations in May 2018, he had submitted a € 25,000 offer to the court that the child’s legal team had refused to recommend for approval and which was agreed to by the then president of the Circuit Court, Judge Raymond Groarke.
He told Judge O’Connor that the trucking company had since increased its settlement offer to 40,000 euros and was now recommending court acceptance.
Judge O’Connor approved the settlement offer of € 40,000 along with Circuit Court costs.
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