A RESEARCH ENGINEER, who fell off the walkway on Baggot Street canal lock when it accidentally opened, suffered a blunt chest trauma “similar to the kick of a horse,” his counsel Garret Cooney told the Circuit Civil Court today.

Judge Terence O’Sullivan, awarding Richard Coull damages totaling more than €40,000 against Waterways Ireland, said he had suffered significant injuries in an unusual accident while crossing the Grand Canal.

Cooney, who appeared with Conor MacGuill Solicitors for Coull, 53, of Brickland Court, Armagh Road, Dundalk, Co Louth, said his client was faced with a nightmare scenario when the lock gates opened suddenly.

Coull had fallen into the lock with no chance of escape and had to be rescued by passers-by and rushed to St Vincent’s Hospital where life-saving treatment was carried out on him.

Consultant Bariatric Surgeon at the hospital, Helen Henegan, told Judge O’Sullivan in a detailed medical report that emergency advanced trauma and life support treatment was carried out on him. He had received continuous oxygen and intravenous painkilling medication.

Cooney said Coull , who suffered collapse of his right lung, had been in hospital for six days while receiving pain management due to the severity of pain in his chest.

Coull told Judge O’Sullivan he was half way across the wooden walkway on the lock gates, returning to his office with his lunch in his hand, when the gates had suddenly opened tossing him into the lock.

“There was no way of getting out. The lock is quite high and there are no escape ladders,” he told the court.” I was pulled out by two men.”

“It was terrifying. My rescuers offered me an arm each and pulled me up, laying me down on the grass verge while calling an ambulance,” he said.

He told Cooney he had to be incubated due to his lung collapsing. Today, two and a half years after the incident, he would still experience pain when lifting anything that put pressure on his right side and he sometimes experienced pain while playing golf.

Judge O’Sullivan said a boney callous had developed on one of Coull’s ribs which caused him discomfort if he lay on his right side. A fracture had not been discovered at admission.

“The defendants accept the accident should not have happened and liability is not an issue in the case,” Judge O’Sullivan said. “It happened without warning and when least expected. It was a very frightening episode and he has suffered some degree of post-traumatic stress.”

Judge O’Sullivan awarded Coull €41,154 damages, just under €6,000 of which will have to be repaid to the VHI for treatment he had received in the private area of St Vincen’ts Hospital.