Lorry driver Mr Gerard Reid said he feared for his life when a gunman at a roundabout on the M50 hijacked a truckload of wines and spirits he was taking to pubs, a judge heard yesterday.
Mr Reid told Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Esmond Smyth, he was ordered at gunpoint to drive his delivery truck to Blanchardstown village where he was forced to hand over the keys and get into the back of a waiting van.
He said he was then driven around for several hours while his truck containing a valuable load of wines and spirits, the property of Gilbeys Ireland Ltd, was taken and emptied of its cargo. Mr Reid, now a taxi-driver of Colepark Drive, Ballyfermot, Dublin, told Mr James McArdle, counsel for Mr Thomas Keegan, Mr Reid's employer, that he had afterwards suffered from post traumatic stress syndrome.
However, Judge Smyth agreed there was nothing more that could have done by his employer regarding the protection of his drivers from hijackers than to have instructed them to co-operate with them and hand over the keys. They had been told never to put their lives at risk in an armed hijacking situation.
Dismissing Mr Reid's €38,000 damages claim, he said it would be imposing too strict an onus of care on Mr Keegan to expect him, in his particular circumstances of business, to install hugely expensive satellite tracking systems in his trucks. "While such a system might have been helpful in tracing the whereabouts of the truck it would not have prevented the hijacking," Judge Smyth said. He did not make an order for costs against Mr Reid.
Mr Reid had said he had difficulty sleeping and was often disturbed by dreams about a man with a gun and helmet. He had remained very anxious after his experience and felt insecure regarding his passengers when working as a taxi-driver, he said.
His employer, Mr Keegan, of Alderwood Close, Tallaght, said that following a previous hijacking, Gilbeys had considered placing satellite tracking systems in truck cabs but had found the cost prohibitive.