AAP
May 03, 2012 3:39PM
QUEENSLAND taxpayers will have to pay the $125,000 compensation bill for a drunken man whose feet were fractured when he was hit by a car while trying to cross a road.
The District Court in Brisbane today ordered the Queensland government-funded Nominal Defendant body pay compensation to Gary John McLean for injuries he suffered on the evening of March 8, 2009.
The Nominal Defendant body compensates people who are injured as a result of the negligent driving of unidentified or uninsured vehicles.
During the hearing in November last year, the court was told McLean, who had been drinking at a pub all day, was hit by an unidentified car while walking to his sister’s home at Deception Bay, east of Brisbane.
The impact fractured both his feet.
An elderly couple helped him to his sister’s home, where he collapsed on the front lawn.
The court was told he was initially reluctant to go to hospital because he wanted to keep drinking, and that he gave various accounts of what had happened.
Lawyers acting for the Nominal Defendant argued in court that the unreliability of his evidence meant his account could not be accepted.
However, Judge John McGill ruled McLean could be trusted because his description of where the incident occurred matched a location that was on the route between the pub and his sister’s house.
He also said McLean’s injuries were consistent with him trying to jump out of the way of a fast-moving car.
Judge McGill awarded McLean the money to cover economic loss and medical expenses.
Article source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au