A WOMAN WHO WRONGLY drove into a bus lane two years ago – and who was verbally assaulted by a busdriver as a result – has been awarded €10,000 in damages by Dublin Circuit Civil Court.
Student Tracey Sugg (22) claims that busdriver Gerard Hearne called her a “tramp” and a “dirty smelly trollop” after she mistakenly pulled into a bus lane and cut across his driving path at Edgewood Lawns on November 13, 2008, the Irish Independent reports.
Sugg, of Church Terrace in Finglas, said that when she had later stopped in traffic, the driver had banged on her window to call her a “blonde bimbo” before continuing:
You are a dirty, smelly trollop and a tramp.
Sugg – who was undergoing treatment for depression at the time, after her brother Stephen was shot dead in a drugs feud in Spain six years ago -tried to drive away but the bus followed her, flashing its lights and driving quite close to her.
Hearne told the Court he would never have used such language, and had only stopped to ask her why she had pulled into his lane.
Complaining that her driving had endangered both her own life and those of the people aboard the bus, he immediately retreated to his bus, he said, when she told him she would “break your f***ing legs” if he didn’t leave her alone.
Hearne said he regretted having left the bus but denied kicking Sugg’s car. Judge Rory MacCabe said CCTV footage had confirmed Sugg’s driving to be dangerous, but found that the busdriver’s reaction was unacceptable.
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