Doyle Shipping Group Unlimited has plead guilty at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to causing the death of Mr. James Byrne, who was killed instantly on the 6th June, 2018 when a 6m steel column fell on top of him as he used a blow torch to separate it from a larger metal structure.
Specifically, the company agreed that is had failed to manage work activities in a way to ensure the safety and health of employees and as a consequence Mr. Byrne suffered personal injury and died.
Judge Pauline Codd said the employer breached its obligation to ensure employees are not put at unnecessary hazard. Judge Codd further noted that the absence of planning the task meant that equipment was not utilised as it should have been.
Mr. Byrne was a very experienced and highly skilled worker and had carried out very similar work in the previous months with no incidents.
The Company have continued to pay Mr. Byrne’s family his full salary and overtime since the incident and there is little doubt that they were genuinely shocked and continue to deeply regret the accident. That said Mr. Byrne’s family have had to carry the real weight of the company’s failure to plan and despite the lengths the Company has gone to to apologise for the death there is no real way to make this ok for the Byrne family.
We hear it all the time ‘health and safety ruins everything’, ‘ah sure that health and safety stuff – just giving a pen-pusher a job’. The fact is though that health and safety has been developed as a direct result of incidents like this. Each injury and each death has been thoroughly considered and regulations developed to try and prevent any more. No employer sets out to hurt an employee. Each accident and injury is a shock to every employer.
The courts will not accept a defense of “Judge the health and safety stuff isn’t how I make my money!” or “Sure we didn’t think anything would happen.”
The HSA have great information on their website for free to help any business manage their health and safety. If you would prefer for it to be managed by a consultant please contact us on [email protected] or 01 8774608.
Stay well.