Suncorp has been ordered to pay more than $1 million in damages to a former police officer who attended a road accident where a trapped driver was dying from horrific injuries.

David Caffrey was a Senior Constable with Queensland Police Service when on the evening of February 17, 2013, he was called to an incident where a Holden Commodore had collided with a tree.

The driver, who had taken a cocktail of drugs, was still alive but had suffered severe head and leg injuries.

Mr Caffrey was first on the scene and urged the injured man to fight for his life, but when paramedics arrived they told Mr Caffrey that he would not survive. Mr Caffrey had to pass this news to the driver’s parents who had arrived at the scene.

After the incident Mr Caffrey began to drink heavily, became suicidal and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

He later sued Suncorp, which was the compulsory third party motor insurer for the deceased driver, alleging that as a result of the victim’s negligent driving he had suffered psychiatric injury.

The Supreme Court of Queensland awarded Mr Caffrey $1.09 million in damages, but Suncorp appealed, saying police officers are required as part of their occupation to attend events where “horrific and distressing injuries” will be present.

The insurer also argued that “extension of the duty of care” to emergency services workers could “create an indeterminate class of prospective plaintiffs which would include police officers, firefighters, paramedics, doctors and nurses, as well as some non-medical staff at a hospital”.

Suncorp says a more “obvious and apt tool” to deal with such psychiatric harm is by recourse to the liability of the employer.

But three judges unanimously dismissed the appeal.

“[The driver’s] negligence was not in dispute,” court documents released last week say.

“He had been driving at an excessive speed while intoxicated by methamphetamine, amphetamine and marijuana.

“The substantial issue at the trial, and the only issue in this appeal, is whether [the driver] owed Senior Constable Caffrey a duty of care to avoid causing him the harm that he had suffered by reason of his attendance, in the course of his duties as a Queensland police officer, at the scene of the crash.”

The court decided that such a duty of care is present, and that “the fact that a rescuer happens to be a police officer does not constitute a legal bar to liability whether the injury is physical, psychiatric or both”.

A Suncorp spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au the court’s ruling is “disappointing”.

“We are currently reviewing the decision and evaluating next steps,” he said.

After the original hearing in February Meridian Lawyers said in a case note that insurers “may be concerned that this decision may open the flood gates”.

Meridian Principal Robert Minc told insuranceNEWS.com.au this week that the latest decision could still be challenged in the High Court.

“If the decision was appealed to the High Court then, depending on the outcome, the insurance industry and government might need to examine the ramifications,” he said.