‘Injured’ woman accused of using gym
Lyndsey Gervin, aged 33, from Coalisland, Co Tyrone, is one of nine people who sued for soft tissue injuries arising out of the August 2008 accident when a car allegedly collided with the rear of a mini-bus the group were in on their way to a night out at the dogs in Dundalk.
They claim the car left the scene immediately and no one got its registration.
The nine, including the driver, brought a claim for injuries, which they say left them in pain for some time, against the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) which compensates victims of uninsured drivers.
MIBI denies their claims.
After seven of them were awarded compensation of between €3,000 and €8,500 in the Circuit Court, MIBI appealed to the High Court. The two who were not successful cross-appealed. A tenth man in the bus did not put in a claim.
On the first day of the appeal, Ms Gervin told her counsel, Patrick McCann, she had to “do away” with going to the gym after the incident. She had gone regularly before then.
When the case resumed yesterday, Jonathan Kilfeather, for MIBI, asked that Ms Gervin be recalled as certain information about her had been learned overnight from her Facebook page.
Mr Kilfeather put it to her that an entry she made in January 2014, stating “am actually too excited about going back to workout Defo Gona b good an stick at it this time...” meant she had been at the gym since the incident.
So did further entries referring to “another night of pain lol” and about it “being worth it”, Mr Kilfeather suggested to her.
Ms Gervin said it was part of her efforts to advertise her partner’s gym among her friends.
Those references were a joke among the Facebook friends to get one of the girls in the group “going” because that girl was doing stuff outside the group, she said.
It did not mean she had gone back to the gym because she hadn’t, she said.
“That is girly stuff, it would not interest you,” she told Mr Kilfeather.
Ms Gervin told her own counsel her Facebook page was supposed to be private. Mr Kilfeather said the material had been downloaded from a public page.
In her evidence about the incident itself, Ms Gervin said all she remembered about the car which hit them was the sound of tyres squealing as it sped off. She said she was completely shocked by the impact of the collision.
Five of the others who have given evidence so far also said they either did not see the car or all they knew was it might have been green and there might have been two people in it.
The case continues.
