AN ADARE woman accused of hitting her neighbour twice with her car in an alleged incident which followed “bad blood” between the two has been cleared of charges in the matter.
Elaine Davidson claimed in Newcastle West District Court that her neighbour, Jayne Benson, twice drove a car into her outside their adjoining homes at Church View on Adare’s Main Street on September 14 2023.
Ms Davidson said that she and her husband were carrying out renovations at the cottage before moving in and on the day she had taken a delivery of building materials and was waiting for a second delivery truck to arrive.
“I was putting out a traffic cone to keep a parking space for the lorry. She (Ms Benson) pulled out of a space three cars up and pulled into the space and touched my leg with her car,” she told the court.
“I told her to wait, that we needed the space. She drove forward again, hitting my leg with her car.”
Ms Davidson said that she went to a doctor after the event and was told there was soft tissue damage.
She produced photos to Judge Mark O’Connell, showing bruising to her leg, but agreed these photos had not been shown to Gardaí or to the defence previously.
When asked under cross examination why she had not shown the photos to the investigating Garda, she said “he didn’t ask for them”.
Ms Davidson agreed that Ms Benson’s car was moving “at a crawl” when the alleged incidents happened.
Asked by the judge why she didn’t move her leg after the first contact, shout out in pain, or alert Ms Benson that the car had hit her, she said “it was shock”.
Asked if she intended to take a civil case for damages against Ms Benson, Ms Davidson responded “I don’t know yet”.
Ms Benson denied in evidence that she had hit Ms Davidson with her car. She told the court that, on the morning, she was heading to her job as a secretary in a school and wanted to move her car to the space directly outside her door as she had “books and other heavy materials to bring to school with me”.
She said that as she turned into the now empty parking space, Ms Davidson “was on the footpath. She stepped down with a bollard (traffic cone) in her hand. She was very agitated. She said ‘we’re not finished’.”
Asked if her car had come in contact with Ms Davidson’s leg at all, she said “certainly not”.
“My car was not moving. I had my handbrake on. I’m certain of that.”
Asked if it was a possibility that she had unintentionally come into contact with Ms Davidson, Ms Benson said “I don’t believe so”.
Judge O’Connell dismissed the charge of careless driving against Ms Benson, saying: “I find it difficult to believe that a person could be struck twice (by a car) without any exclamation being made.”
“I’m uncomfortable with the photos being produced so late in the day,” he added.
“This is a criminal prosecution and if it were successful would leave Ms Benson with a criminal record.”
Judge O’Connell said he had “too many doubts” to convict but stressed that knowing there was “bad blood’ between the parties previous to the alleged event did not form any part of his decision.
