Builder and sons fined €350,000 after death of Polish worker

A BUILDER and his two sons were fined €350,000 after admitting health and safety breaches which led to the death of a 49-year…

A BUILDER and his two sons were fined €350,000 after admitting health and safety breaches which led to the death of a 49-year old Polish worker on a site in Roscommon.

The grief suffered by Czeslav Malinowski’s widow was compounded a year later when the couple’s only son was killed in a car crash in Poland.

Danuta Malinowska told Judge Michael White that her life had been changed irrevocably by the tragic accident on the building site in Roscommon on April 14th, 2006.

Her husband, who had come to Ireland to work, died when he fell from a teleporter on the site at Main Street in Roscommon town.

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Sean Doyle and his son John, who are directors of Owencrest Properties Ltd of Circular Road Roscommon, along with another son, Noel Doyle, a director of Roscommon Building Co Ltd of Ardsallagh, Roscommon, were fined yesterday after they pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two charges each arising from the accident. They were prosecuted under the Health, Safety and Welfare at Work Act 2005.

Sean Doyle (61) of Ardsallagh, Roscommon was driving the teleporter at the time of the accident, even though he was not certified to operate it.

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) said the case should be a warning to all those with responsibility for safety in the workplace.

HSA chief executive Martin O’ Halloran said: “My sympathies are with the wife of Mr. Malinowski. I understand that nothing can ever make up for her loss but I hope that the sentencing can give her some closure and act as a deterrent to other directors and senior managers who are not taking their legal and moral duties seriously.”

Mrs Malinowska said she had “an open wound” which had never healed since her husband died.

She described him as a hard-working man and “a man of honour” who did not want to be on social welfare at home.

Kevin Broderick, an inspector from the HSA, told Roscommon Circuit Court he interviewed Sean Doyle after the accident.

Mr Doyle said, that as he manoeuvred the teleporter from the footpath on to the road, his elbow had accidentally struck a lever causing the raised platform and Mr Malinowski to fall to the ground.

Mr Broderick said the teleporter, which was bought locally, had no tilt lock mechanism, as required by legislation, to prevent the platform from moving.

Judge White said he accepted Mr Doyle’s were a respectable group of companies with an unblemished record.

However, Judge White said there had been a failure to put in place necessary safety measures and a death had occurred. He fined Roscommon Building Co Ltd €200,000 and imposed a fine of €100,000 on Owencrest Properties Ltd. Judge White fined Mr Doyle personally €50,000.