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Mind now: Saturdays and July most likely times for accidents in public places

Injuries Board figures show that €44m awarded in public liability accidents last year.

COMPENSATION OF €44M was awarded in public liability accidents last year, according to the body responsible for ordering the awards.

New figures from the Injuries Board show that over 1,700 public liability awards were made in 2013.

The most common injuries were slips, trips and falls, and women accounted for the majority of awards.

Of all public place accidents before the Board, 2% involved animals, including dog attacks, bull attacks, being trampled by a horse, and collisions between cyclists and dogs. There were 40 PL awards last year for accidents in supermarkets.

The average award for PL claims rose 11% from last year to €25,120, while the award was higher for men than for women, at an average €25,664 and €24,902 respectively.

The number of awards over €100,000 increased from 2 in 2011 to 18 in 2013; more than eight in every 10 awards last year were under €38,000.

Women are almost twice as likely to sustain an injury in a public place, accounting for 71.4% of all PL awards made last year. People aged between 18 and 24 were the least likely to receive a PL award (8.3% of cases), while those aged between 25 and 64 accounted for two-thirds of the awards.

Based on figures from the last three years, Saturday was the most common day for accidents in public places and July was the most common month (January being the safest).

The Injuries Board is an independent body which makes personal injury compensation awards for motor, workplace and public liability accidents. An Order to Pay issued by the board is legally binding. 

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    Mute James Murphy
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    Jul 11th 2014, 10:48 AM

    I wonder how of those claims were genuine.

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    Mute James Murphy
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    Jul 11th 2014, 10:51 AM

    *how many

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    Mute Emily Elephant
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    Jul 11th 2014, 11:30 AM

    There’s a red flag here in that people between 25 and 64 make up 54% of the people but two thirds of the claims. You would intuitively expect children and older people to be more prone to accident and/or injury. But I’ve no idea how it compares to other countries’ breakdowns.

    71% of injuries to women is startling, but consistent with the fact that women are significantly more injury-prone than men. It doesn’t tell us anything about the number of accidents.

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    Mute Kevin O' Brien
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    Jul 11th 2014, 12:39 PM

    I wonder how many claimants are brazilian. They seem to be very accident prone from what I’ve seen over the last few weeks …

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    Mute paperboy
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    Jul 11th 2014, 10:39 AM

    Anything on Garth brooks yet? It’s been about 4 hours and still nothing.. I’m disappointed

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    Mute James Murphy
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    Jul 11th 2014, 10:46 AM

    Don’t jinx it

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    Mute Sandra Turner
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    Jul 11th 2014, 11:27 AM

    So 18-24 year olds (a 6 year gap) accounted for 8% and 25 – 64 year olds (39 year gap) account for 66%

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    Mute Eel Knack Mole
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    Jul 11th 2014, 11:25 AM

    71.4% of claims by women – that is an extraordinary statistic

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    Mute jason stenson
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    Jul 11th 2014, 10:49 AM

    Slow news day???

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    Mute Colm Healy
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    Jul 11th 2014, 10:52 AM

    That’s ok Ted, today is Friday

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    Mute Paul Parsons
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    Jul 11th 2014, 7:53 PM

    I’d say the Galway races and to a lesser extent races in other parts of the country make up a good portion of that. It’s like rag week for adults.

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