A Dublin rapper who told the courts she has had five cycling crashes, bringing damages claims for four, has had two of the cases concluded by the courts today. She was awarded €1,900 after claiming for up to €120,000 against the two motorists involved and their insurance companies.
In one case the court found she was mostly to blame for the incident, which reduced the damages she awarded. In both cases, the damages awarded to her were well below the sums the claimant was seeking from the court. The judge in the case noted cyclists habitually broke red lights and rode on the wrong side of the road, though there was no evidence of any such cycling from the claimant in the case.
Arezu Tabarsi, Millbrook Court, Mount Brown, Kilmainham, Dublin, told the Circuit Civil Court she had been in five cycling crashes and brought claims arising from four of them. Two of the incidents, she said, had previously been finalised and she was awarded €20,000 in one of them.
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Two of the other claims - arising from cycling crashes she was involved in in Dublin in May and September, 2019 - were dealt with together today before Judge James O’Donohue, according to the Sunday World.
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The court heard the 33-year-old had crashed into a shop doorway when a van driver slightly entered the bike lane and startled her in Drumcondra, north Dublin. In the other incident she hit her elbow off the wing mirror of taxi when the driver pulled in to let a passenger out on Thomas Street in Dublin's south inner city.
Barrister Conor Kearney, who represented the drivers involved in both incidents, contended the van driver that Ms Tabarsi said encroached into the cycle lane had not made any contact with her. He also put it to the court that in the second incident, any contact between her elbow and the taxi wing mirror was minimal.
Judge O’Donohue awarded her €4,000 for the incident involving the van driver in Drumcondra but as Ms Tabarsi was also found by the judge to be 80 per cent to blame, the damages were cut to €800. And while €500 was also awarded so she could replace her bike, that was cut to €100.
In the second case a sum of €1,000 was awarded as the taxi driver was found to be fully to blame for her elbow injury. However, the judge did not award Ms Tabarsi any damages for a claim she made in that incident for damage to her phone, a speaker and her bike. The evidence suggested she had not fallen during that incident on Thomas St.
The judge also noted Ms Tabarsi was wearing headphones during the first incident and was listening to music and not paying full attention. He added the Dubliner had not helped her own case as she could not recall some matters.
