Court rejects 45 thousand in compensation for falling after leaving the TUB bus

He requested 45 thousand euros in compensation from TUB-Transportes Urbanos de Braga for, in August 2019, he fell, injuring himself, while getting off a bus at a stop in the urban center. Maria D. (then 57 years old), and who also demanded 644.5 euros in health expenses, filed a civil action in the Braga Court claiming that the driver, suddenly, resumed driving the vehicle, without taking precautions his exit, causing him to fall, landing on the asphalt, where he collided violently with his left knee and his right upper limb.

The Civil Unit judge did not agree with him and acquitted the TUB, a decision now confirmed by the Court of Appeal of Guimarães: “nothing is found in the matter of fact relating to the driving conditions of the vehicle or its driver that suggests a contribution to the occurrence of the author’s fall”, concluded the judge-judges, highlighting that the reasons for the fall had not been ascertained.

The passenger, who is an employee of the Hospital, argued that, “the driver had to wait for him to get off the bus, to resume driving, so only clumsiness, inconsiderateness and lack of dexterity led him to take off without taking precautions to exit”.

Fall caused serious injuries

She maintained that the fall – after which she was hospitalized for 15 days – caused serious injuries, namely trauma to her left knee and right upper limb (with dislocation of the elbow, fracture of the tacicle and closed fracture of the head of the radius), resulting in treatment expenses. surgical, physiotherapeutic, medical and medication treatments, and functional sequelae such as difficulty remaining standing for a long time, fragility of the left lower limb with pain and slight limping, aggravated by walking on inclined or uneven floors, limitation of movements of the right arm and decreased its strength and difficulty in picking up objects with the right arm”.

On the other hand, it caused situational consequences, such as greater prostration, due to the pain that affects it, difficulty in going up and down stairs, difficulty in walking for prolonged periods and pain in the right arm.

Without calling into question the consequences of the fall, the Court concluded that the author’s conduct was, in itself, sufficient and adequate to cause the accident, revealing that the passenger vehicle, from the point of view of its risk-generating ability, that is, in terms of adequate causality, regardless of that fall. In other words, the user will have fallen – pass the pleonasm – by her own foot…