London, Jan 16 A Indian-origin surgeon in south-central England has been ordered to pay 135,000 pounds in damages after her car hit a 12-year-old girl, causing serious head injury, collarbone fracture and other complications.
Dr Shanthi Chandran's car collided with the schoolgirl as she stepped into the road on her way to school in Buckingham Road, Bicester, in January 2018.
Chandran, a consultant physician at Milton Keynes hospital, was on her way to work in her BMW i3 Range Extender when the incident happened, the Oxford Mail newspaper reported last week.
The child's head struck the nearside windscreen of her car, causing the glass to shatter, the police said.
Officers said her body was “thrown” or carried 11 metres beyond the pedestrian crossing and almost to the entrance of a nearby petrol station due to the force of the collision.
Following the accident, the girl, who is now 18-years-old, suffered a serious head injury, a bleed to the brain and a fracture in her left collarbone.
According to court documents, she was intubated and ventilated for three days and was in hospital for 10 days.
During the first year post accident, she was “left with cognitive and psychiatric problems”, suffered nightmares and "PTSD-type symptoms".
Blaming Chandran for negligence, the girl said she "was driving too fast given the prevailing conditions and if she were driving at a safe and reasonable speed, the collision would not have happened".
Chandran told police that she was driving at 28mph, which was below the applicable speed limit of 30 mph and appropriate for the conditions, and that she immediately stopped her car after she saw that a young girl had been struck.
In her defence, Chandran told the court that the incident was caused by the girl stepping out into the road when the lights were green.
During a case hearing last year, Judge Dexter Dias said it was a "common misconception" that it was "reasonable" to drive just below the speed limit.
"While this case is not about a fatality, it shows yet again how dangerous it is to drive at excessive and unreasonable speed," Judge Dias had said.
The court determined a 40 per cent reduction in the initially proposed 225,000 pounds in damages "because of the contributory negligence of the girl stepping out into the road while the traffic lights were green", The Mail reported.
The compensation was determined at the High Court last month, and the judgment was published on January 11.
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