Retired teacher awarded $200,000 over 2011 Mandeville bus accident

A retired teacher has been awarded more than $200,000 for pain and suffering after a bus struck her near the Mandeville Market in Manchester in 2011, according to a Supreme Court judgment handed down last month. The award reflects a reduction after the court found she was partly responsible for the incident.

Justice Sonya Wint-Blair ruled on May 19 that the driver of a Toyota Hiace minibus breached his duty of care when the public passenger vehicle hit the former teacher on August 4, 2011. She was 73 years old at the time of trial in May 2025. 

The court ordered the driver and the owner to pay 80 per cent of the damages. It said the former teacher was responsible for 20 per cent of the damages because she had failed to maintain a proper lookout while crossing a three-lane roadway. She filed the suit in 2012.

The retired teacher testified that she had been crossing Manchester Road from the park side toward the market side, where taxi stands and vendors were located, when a white car stopped and signalled for her to cross. As she proceeded, a white minibus came around the stopped vehicle and made contact with her, causing her to fall.

The bus was owned by Jason Simpson and driven by Michael Marlon Malcolm, the two defendants. 

Malcolm disputed the woman’s account, testifying that she stepped unexpectedly into the path of the bus and that he swerved to avoid her, with her left hand making contact with the right-side mirror. 

He maintained that traffic was bumper-to-bumper and that he was travelling at approximately 10 kilometres per hour.

Justice Wint-Blair rejected Malcolm's account of both the traffic conditions and his lane position, finding it inconsistent with the admitted point of contact, which was between the teacher’s left hand and the bus's right-side wing mirror. 

The judge found that had the former teacher stepped directly into the bus's path, the more likely point of impact would have been the front of the vehicle, not the side mirror.

"Had the second defendant (the driver) kept a proper lookout, waited, applied his brakes, or ensured that the way was clear before moving around or past the stopped vehicle, the accident would probably have been avoided," Justice Wint-Blair said. 

She accepted that the bus was moving at a low speed but noted that “a slow movement may still be negligent if it is made without a proper lookout and without first ensuring that the way is clear”.

The court also said that the collision in the vicinity of the Mandeville Market and taxi park is an area where pedestrian traffic was plainly foreseeable. It also said that a driver of a public passenger vehicle was required to appreciate that a stopped vehicle may have done so to allow pedestrians to cross.

However, the court also found that the retired teacher was partly negligent. 

The judge said that while one vehicle had stopped to allow her to cross this did not entitle her to assume all lanes were safe, particularly given her evidence that traffic was light, meaning she had an opportunity to see the approaching bus but failed to do so.

The court also significantly curtailed the damages claim after finding some of the medical evidence unreliable.

A report from Dr Jerome Howell's attributed injuries including whiplash, blurred vision, and head impact to the accident. 

But the court found that some of those conclusions rested on unproven assumptions, including that the retired teacher had fallen backwards and struck her head on the road, a fact not established in evidence.

"The court must assess damages on the injuries proved, not on those alleged," Justice Wint-Blair stated. She noted that the ex-teacher had no permanent disability and that the doctor reported that she was "almost completely healed".

The court awarded the former teacher $250,000 in general damages but reduced the amount to $200,000 after the 20 per cent contributory negligence. She had sought $2.8 million. Interest at 3 per cent per annum will run from October 17, 2012, when the lawsuit was filed. 

Special damages of $23,045.07, which were agreed, were also awarded. The driver and owner are to pay 80 per cent of the retired teacher’s legal costs, with interest at 3 per cent from August 2011, when the crash occurred. 

The former teacher was represented by attorney-at-law Danielle S Archer. The defendants were represented by Suzette Burton-Campbell.

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