The partner of a rapid response medic John Hinds who died during a practice session the day before the Skerries 100 motorbike road race six years ago has sued in the High Court.
Irish road racing volunteer Dr John Hinds (35), an anaesthetist at Craigavon Hospital in Co Armagh, died at Beaumont Hospital following the motorbike crash.
His partner Dr Janet Acheson has brought the action claiming damages for personal injuries over the death of Mr Hinds. The action is against the Loughshinny Motorcycle Supporters Club Ltd, the organisers of the Skerries 100 event, and the Motorcycle Union of Ireland (Southern Centre} Ltd as a result of the accident on July 3rd, 2015.
The incident happened near Skerries, Co Dublin as Dr Hinds followed race contenders during a practice session for the Skerries 100 the oldest road race here, on July 3rd 2015.
Dr Hinds from Co Down was a volunteer for the Motorcycle Union of Ireland providing rapid response medical aid at road race meetings north and south of the Border.
BMW
In the High Court, BMW Automotive (Ireland) Ltd has lost a bid to have the third-party proceedings brought against it as part of the action set aside.
In a judgment published this week and delivered last month, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon refused to set aside the third party proceedings against BMW and said in all the circumstances the court was satisfied that the third party notice was served as soon as was reasonably possible.
The judge said Dr Hinds, who was then the appointed mobile medical assistant for the Skerries 100 Road Race was accompanying motorcycles around the circuit during a practice session when he suffered fatal injuries and he died the next day. BMW was one of three notice parties which were later added to the proceedings.
BMW had argued there had been a failure by the defendants to issue the application to join it as a third party within the time period allowed.
Conflict
Ms Justice Creedon said there was a conflict in the affidavit evidence between the parties as to what was agreed between them in respect of specialist testing and retrieval of data from the motorcycle being ridden by Mr Hinds at the time of the accident.
The judge said it does not seem to be in dispute between the parties that the motorcycle was in the possession of the defendants for three weeks after the accident during which time a visual inspection of the motorbike was carried out.
Ms Justice Creedon said the motorcycle was subsequently released to BMW, but the terms under which the motorcycle was released is in dispute between the parties.
The judge said the court considers the defendants did not act unreasonably in not joining BMW following the issuing of proceedings in 2017.
Having considered events in the period following the issue of proceedings, it was also not unreasonable for the defendants to consider that the visual inspections of the motorbike by an engineer and the information contained in the personal injuries summons did not provide them with sufficient information to decide on the appropriateness of joining BMW as a third party.
