The Health and Safety Authority has welcomed a €500,000 fine on a Galway construction company for breaches of health and safety legislation, following the death of a 25-year-old employee in a work accident almost two years ago.
The fine, imposed by Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court, is the highest ever handed down by the courts for health and safety offences.
Mr Thomas Farragher fell from a height of about nine metres while replacing a damaged roof gutter on a building at Charlestown, Co Mayo, in September, 2001.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) found that the company had failed to provide Mr Farragher with adequate training in fall protection.
The company pleaded guilty to breaches of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989 and the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations of 1995.
Mr Tom Beegan, the Health and Safety Authority's chief executive, described the ruling as a landmark judgment. "I welcome this case as an important vindication of the authority's ongoing commitment to the investigation and pursuit of those who commit health and safety offences," he said.
At Castlebar Circuit Court, sitting in Westport, Judge Harvey Kenny said that the accident was caused by the failure of the company, Oran Pre-Cast Ltd., Deerpark Industrial Estate, Oranmore, to make sure proper standards of safety were maintained on the work site. The company had a number of previous warnings and prohibition notices. The fatal accident occurred on September 3rd, 2001, at T.J. Grady's Ltd., near Charlestown. Oran Pre-Cast Ltd. was employed by Grady's to erect a pre-cast concrete factory facility.
Mr John Jordan, B.L. (Prosecuting for the National Authority for Occupational Safety and Health), said the deceased man, Mr Thomas Farragher from Corofin, and Mr Ronan Cullinane, were on the roof replacing a gutter which was cracked. In the course of that replacement, Mr Farragher fell from the roof, suffering fatal injuries and died shortly afterwards. A number of sheets of roofing had been removed to facilitate the job. The deceased fell a height of nine metres inside the building.
Ms Bernadette Gannon, an Inspector with the Authority, said two roof sheets were removed to facilitate the introduction of the new concrete gutter. Mr Farragher and Mr Cullinane got to the roof using a mobile elevated platform.
Mr Cullinane was repositioning chains on his side and Mr Farragher was doing the same on his side when the gutter slipped. He tried to reposition himself but fell straight down. Mr Cullinane wasn't wearing a harness. Mr Farragher was, but it wasn't anchored. They could not reposition the gutter from inside the hoist and had to go onto the roof. This was an unsafe system of work and there was no plan in place to do this job safely.
Witness said the two men should have been able to do the work from the hoist. Because insufficient sheets were removed from the roof, they didn't have room to do this.
If the work was planned properly, they should have been able to do their work while harnessed in the platform, Ms Gannon said. There would have been no danger.