A man who was injured when he fell in the dark is suing a council after it turned the lights off.
Michael Macdonald, 30, broke his ankle following the fall as he made a two minute walk home on a Hebridean island.
Mr Macdonald is now seeking £20,000 damages from the Western Isles council, Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar, in an action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. The local authority is contesting the action.
He told the court that it was dark at the time of the accident which occurred about 2am on November 27 in 2011.
“If you put your hand up in front of your face you couldn’t see it,” he said.
He had earlier finished work at the Lochboisdale Hotel in South Uist where he worked as a chef and gone to visit a friend.
Mr Macdonald said that during the journey home he realised that he had left keys at the friend’s house and he turned round but caught the edge of a kerb.
He said he had been expecting street lighting to be on. “I didn’t have a torch or my mobile phone. I would have taken a torch if I had known they were off,” he said.
His counsel Andrew Hajducki QC asked if he was sure he would not have had the accident if the lights were on. He replied: “Very sure.”
Mr MacDonald, now of Bornish, South Uist, said he had lived in Lochboisdale for about two years at the time of the incident. He said the lights would stay on all night.
Mr Hajducki asked him if there were any sign up telling him the lights were going off. He said: “No.”
He said there was nothing put up on lampposts informing that this was going to happen and a torch should be carried.
The counsel said the court may hear evidence that a decision had been taken to save money by switching the lights off.
Mr Macdonald said all the houses were dark at the time and there was no other lighting.
He said he was left hanging onto the lamp post after the accident before people came to his aid. He said: “I couldn’t stand.” The court heard that staff at the hotel might be using the street after midnight along with patrons and that the Barra ferry occasionally came in after then.
In the action it was said he could not see where he was placing his feet because the street lighting which would have lit the area had been switched off by the council.
It is said the local authority knew or ought to have known that Lochboisdale had a population of about 300 residents.
Mr MacDonald said he still gets a lot of stiffness and a lot of swelling following the fracture to his ankle.
The judge hearing the action, Lord Matthews, was told that damages had been agreed at £20,000 if liability was established. The local authority is contesting the case which continues.