An engineering consultancy firm is facing trial on health and safety charges connected to a fatal workplace accident in Dublin three years ago.
John McCann, a grandfather in his sixties from Greenfort Gardens in Clondalkin, Dublin and formerly of Stratford-on-Slaney, Wicklow, fell while working in a shaft on a building on September 23rd, 2019.
Following a Health and Safety Authority investigation, Ove Arup & Partners Ireland Ltd, based at Ringsend Road, Dublin 4, faces five charges under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005.
It is accused of failing to ensure work by non-employees at the firm’s premises were not exposed to risk, and as a consequence, John McCann suffered personal injury and died.
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The case was listed at Dublin District on Wednesday.
Judge Anthony Halpin noted the Director of Public Prosecutions directed trial on indictment, meaning the case will be heard at Circuit Court level.
He granted an adjournment until January to allow prosecutors to prepare a book of evidence to be served on the defendant.
The charges alleged a fragile surface was a hazard and control measures were not in place to stop access.
They also state a barrier erected in front of the fragile surface was free-standing and easily moved, and the wording of a warning sign was insufficient.
