Ciarán Cannon sues motorist in High Court after being knocked off bike in Galway

Fine Gael TD Ciarán Cannon has taken a High Court action against the driver of a car that struck him in Co Galway in 2021, knocking him off his bicycle and injuring his knee.

Mr Cannon, a former minister of State who represents Galway East, lodged the personal injury action last week. He is seeking at least €60,000 in compensation, the threshold for taking a personal injury case to the High Court rather than the Circuit Court.

The TD, who declined to comment when contacted, has spoken about the effects of his injuries following the collision in Moycullen on July 2nd, 2021.

Mr Cannon, a keen cyclist and campaigner for improved safety for cyclists, suffered a tibial plateau fracture in the collision, which required surgery and several months of rehabilitation. He posted footage of the incident online after the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to prosecute the motorist.

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Speaking to The Irish Times last year, the TD said he had surgery on the injury the following day “with surgeons using bone grafts, plates and screws to reassemble my knee joint”.

“I was told that I can’t put any weight on my right leg for the next three months and it will be 18 to 24 months before I’m back to full strength. But the most difficult part is the fact that I won’t know how successful the surgery has been, or what level of strength and flexibility I will return to, until I reach the end of my rehabilitation programme.”

Mr Cannon has since made a good recovery, cycling just over 500km around Co Galway exactly a year after the collision. Marking the same date this year, he cycled 935km around Ireland raising funds for Hand In Hand, a childhood cancer charity.

Mr Cannon said last year that, in his 40 years of cycling, Irish roads had grown more dangerous, particularly in rural areas.

“The reality is that the rural roads around the country are particularly dangerous, and, if you look at recent data, the most dangerous place you can be on a bike in Ireland right now is a rural road on a Sunday afternoon, as it is the place and time where most of our serious accidents take place,” he said.

He has called for increased driver safety training to avoid more collisions involving cyclists.

“Cyclists are still treated like unwelcome interlopers on our roads rather than legitimate road users in their own right. There are repeated requests for us to cycle in single file, despite it being more dangerous to do so, just so that motorists are not inconvenienced,” he said.

“We are encouraged to wear high-vis clothing in order to make ourselves more visible to motorists, instead of motorists being encouraged to be more vigilant in looking out for us. This is called victim blaming, and it has to stop. There should be no hierarchy of road users: we all deserve to choose our own mode of transport and to be able to travel safely, whatever mode we choose ...”

The TD has also called for gardaí to establish a dedicated portal for the submission of video footage by road users, including cyclists, of dangerous behaviour on the roads.