The family of a stonemason who drowned with a colleague, when the cable holding a cage they were working in at Thomond Bridge in Limerick nine years ago failed, has settled a High Court action for an undisclosed sum.
Bryan Whelan, of O’Briensbridge, Co Clare, had been carrying out repointing work at the bridge on August 29th, 2015, along with two other men, TJ Herlihy of Castleisland, Co Kerry, and Paul Murphy of Askeaton, Co Limerick. Mr Herlihy also died in the incident while Mr Murphy was rescued from the water as he was being swept downstream.
The family of Mr Whelan, then 29, had taken the action against Palfinger Ireland Ltd, Palfinger Europe GmbH, Nationwide Crane Hire Ltd, Paul Mulcair Ltd, Gaelach Droichead Ltd T/A Irish Bridge, Mulcahy Walsh & Co Ltd and Limerick City and County Council
Mr Whelan and his colleagues had been working in a cage suspended from a winch crane located on a flatbed lorry on the bridge when the incident occurred. The steel cable to which the cage was attached snapped after becoming overburdened and a number of safety mechanisms failed.
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An inquest into the deaths, held in April of last year, heard the three men had been attached by harnesses to the cage as a precaution against them being tipped into the water, in part because Mr Murphy could not swim.
When the collapse happened, they were plunged into the river attached to the cage. He managed to unclip the harness and got to the surface, while the two other men had to be cut free by rescuers and efforts to revive them failed.
Two of the respondents had previously pleaded guilty to contraventions of the Health and Safety at Work Act. Nationwide Crane Hire of Dock Road, Limerick, was fined €200,000 while Palfinger Ireland Ltd of Church Hill, Cloncollog, Tullamore, Co Offaly, was fined €25,000.
It had been previously heard that, when Palfinger supplied the winch crane to Nationwide on March 12th, 2003, a chapter in the accompanying manual on the importance of regularly maintaining and testing the crane’s overload safety mechanism had been missing. This was ultimately the mechanism that failed on the day of the tragedy, while an alarm that should have alerted the crane operator to the danger did not go off.
A report by the Health and Safety Authority into the incident was critical of the safety precautions taken on the day.
Speaking on Thursday, after Ms Justice Denise Brett had been informed a settlement had been agreed between the two sides, Seán Fitzgerald, who represented the family, criticised the amount of time it takes to complete criminal prosecutions in such cases, saying it prolongs the suffering of the families involved.
“Bryan’s family are relieved that this process has concluded after nine years but it should not have taken so long for them to be allowed whatever measure of closure they can take from all of this,” he said.
Mr Whelan’s parents, John and Margaret, his brothers John Paul and Robert, and sisters Veronica and Marie, were at the court on Thursday when the settlement was agreed.
Mr Murphy settled a case relating to the incident for an undisclosed sum in October while a case taken by the family of Mr Herlihy, a father of two young children, was settled for €1.1 million in May.
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