Feckoff.net

From the Irish Independent (free registration required, though you should try bugmenot.com and see if they’ve got usernames and passwords for it):

HE WAS blatantly riding a motorcycle without any insurance and while on a provisional licence.

So when Martin Woods from Co Louth crashed and was paralysed for life almost four years ago it was just fortunate that he did not maim or kill anyone else.

But the 23-year-old is now taking a test case to the European Commission to try and force a change in Irish law that would oblige the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland to give him a multimillion euro payout in compensation for his injuries.

If he succeeds, he will open the floodgates for other uninsured motorists to claim from a fund which was originally set up to recompense the innocent victims of uninsured road users.

The move would inevitably lead to a hike in insurance premiums for law-abiding motorists, a possibility that did not seem to overly concern Mr Woods last week.

He said: “Compensation has to come from somewhere and that is what insurance is for. I had every intention of getting insurance, but I wasn’t able because I was working all the time.

“It was the day that was in it, having a day off work, that made me go out on the bike without insurance. I didn’t re ally think I was doing any thing too wrong. Now I just have to try and make the best of my life.”

Mr Woods was 19 years old and his brother Stephen was 18 when the two crashed at Clogher Head, Co Louth on September 14, 2001. The nation had been given the day off work to mourn the victims of the 9/11 attacks on New York. Neither brother had passed a test at the time.

Mr Woods claims that he was “just trying out” a new Honda 400cc motorbike, but it was not the first time the teenager had taken the powerful bike out on the public road uninsured.

He was just a few miles from home when his brother sped up behind him, overtook and did a U-turn causing the crash. Mr Woods was catapulted from his bike into a parked car. His brother escaped with a broken leg, but Mr Woods suffered serious injuries that mean he will never walk again.

During a three-month stay in the Mater Hospital, Dublin Mr Woods made the shocking discovery that his younger brother was also uninsured. He said: “I said to him, ‘I’ll have to get compo for this off your insurance’. He said, ‘Sure, I’ve no insurance’. At the time it was the least ofmy worries.”

Mr Woods suffered numerous broken bones and damage to his spinal cord that left him paralysed from the shoulders down. He has the use of his arms, but is now entirely dependent on his mother Mary. He said: “I can’t describe the anguish and mental torture that these events have caused to me and my family. Imagine the pain I felt as it gradually dawned on me what my life now was and would become. I have suffered rage, denial and despair. The physical pain, though shocking, was not the worst.”

Stephen Woods was fined for a number of serious offences, including dangerous driving and driving with neither licence nor insurance. Martin Woods has not faced charges for driving without insurance, an offence that carries the ultimate penalty of a six-month jail sentence.

Mr Woods applied for compensation from MIBI, but was turned down as the rules state that motorists who drive while uninsured are ineligible regardless of who is to blame for the collision.

Mr Woods said: “My brother didn’t set out to do it, but he is to blame. I am not at fault here at all. My brother knows it was his fault.”

Mr Woods has chosen not to sue his brother as “he has nothing”. Instead he hopes a formal complaint to the European Commission will lead to a change in Irish law forcing the fund to pay him €2m.

Mr Woods said: “An award of financial compensation would not give me back my health and youth, but would go a long way to givingme back some level ofindependence and restoring my dignity.”

Ironically, Mr Woods would have been entitled to compensation if the crash had happened anywhere northof the Border - just 25miles away.

Solicitor Alison McGrath said: “The purpose of the EU directive is to compensate blameless victims of uninsured drivers.

“The Irish government introduced a clause excluding blameless drivers who were also uninsured.

“The position is different in Britain, where someone in Martin’s position would be entitled to compensation.”

The MIBI fund is entirely paid for by law-abiding Irish drivers who pay a levy of six per cent on their motor insurance to sustain it. The most recent figures show the fund paid out an incredible €70m to victims of uninsured drivers in 2003.

Last week the European Commission issued a “reasoned opinion” formally asking the Irish State to “amend its legislation on insurance cover for blameless drivers of uninsured vehicles”.

MIBI are seeking legal advice on how to respond to this. Chief executive John Casey said: “The cost of the mayhem caused by uninsured drivers comes directly from the premiums paid by the law abiding 95 per cent of the motoring population who pay their insurance regularly.

“Should this case succeed there will certainly be an implication for insurance premiums, though I imagine this may not be too severe as the chances of two uninsured drivers crashing into each other are relatively low.”

But Mr Casey stressed there are moral as well as financial implications to Mr Woods’ case as it is “wholly inequitable” that a person who “has not bothered to insure” should be entitled to compensation paid for by those who abide by the law.

What a complete and utter cunt. So, he got paralised. What a shame. I hope he lost the use of his testicles too, because it would be a real tragedy if he was to further pollute the gene pool by reproducing.
Its bad enough that he was driving without a (full) licence and without any insurance, but the fact that this greedy little scumbag cunt is trying to milk the decent motorists who pay their insurance, tax, etc for €2 million in “compensation” just makes my blood boil.
Hey shithead, guess what insurance is for, you fucking wanker. I would have taken some kind of pity on someone in your position who has lost the use of their limbs, but YOU are beyond contempt, you prick.
I hope your wheelchair gets smashed by a bus.