Drydocks employee who fell five storeys in ship accident awarded €100,000

The employee, Raymond Barbara, was a slinger who suffered a fall of five stories when the scaffolding he was standing on gave way. Consequently, he was permanently disabled and unable to walk.

Barbara, who was 36 at the time, was at working on the ship Lobo Elif on his night-shift when the accident happened at 1:15am. He suffered extensive spinal injuries and spent 12 days in the hospital’s intensive therapy unit and several months in various other wards, and even had to be given physiotherapy in a hospital in the UK.

Barbara was still in receipt of his salary, until he was medically boarded out in 2006.

The court awarded him €4,154 in actual damages and another €136,800 for loss of earnings, but deducted a €39,957 payment he received under his Personal Accident insurance scheme.