A young girl who fell while skating and suffered a finger injury when another skater ran over her hand has sued in the High Court.
Aoibhe Naghten, aged 10 at the time of the accident in December 2015, said it occurred eight metres from the exit to the pop-up ice rink at Blanchardstown Centre, Dublin, at the end of a skating session.
She told Mr Justice Michael Hanna she was skating towards the exit when a man standing at the side barrier turned around and accidentally bumped against her and she fell. While she was on the ground, she said another skater went over her right hand.
“I was shocked and frightened. There was a cut and blood all over my hand,” Ms Naghten, now aged almost 12, said.
Ms Naghten, Summerfield Rise, Blanchardstown, has, through her mother Teresa Crowley, sued Cool Running Events Ltd, with offices at Glanmire, Co Cork, as a result of the fall. She claims Cool Running Events allegedly allowed the premises to become overcrowded and non participants were allegedly allowed to interfere with legitimate patrons genuinely participating in the event.
The claims are denied and Cool Running Events contends the plaintiff was the author of her own misfortune and took on a voluntary assumption of risk upon entering the ice rink.
In evidence, Ms Naghten said she went ice skating wth her mother and sister Kerri and was making her way to the exit when a man at the barrier turned into her path and knocked her. When her counsel Richard Kean SC said the other side contended the accident was her fault and asked her did she do anything wrong, she said she did not. She said she was given first aid at the rink and later got the wound in her right hand cleaned and stitched in hospital. She also had to have a splint for her right middle finger, could not write at school afterwards and has been left with a scar.
Asked by Gerard Clarke SC, for the defence, if she saw a safety video played at the venue, she said she did not remember that. She agreed at the time of the accident she was trying to catch up with her sister.
The court also watched a video of the ice skating session.
The case continues on Friday.