A CONSTRUCTION company has been fined €100,000 for failing to stop building work during freak weather conditions, leading to a worker’s death.
In January 2007, carpenter Edward Fowler (28) was hit on the head by a scaffolding board which was blown loose by high winds.
Minutes earlier a decision had been made to evacuate the site because of the wind, which reached a record 148km/h at nearby Dublin airport. GT Crampton Ltd had six previous convictions for health and safety breaches, including two involving fatalities.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the site management knew severe weather was forecast for that morning and lower wind speeds had blown scaffolding boards lose in the previous weeks.
When fire brigade members were tending to Mr Fowler on site another board landed one metre away. The emergency personnel felt it was too dangerous to remain and a makeshift stretcher was made to carry the victim out. He later died after three days on life support.
Clive Moutray, a director of GT Crampton Ltd, of Ballintaggart House, Clonskeagh Road, Clonskeagh, previously pleaded guilty on its behalf to failing to close part of the site at Charlestown, St Margaret’s Road, Finglas, which on January 18th, 2007 was exposed to severe weather conditions leading to the death of Mr Fowler.
Judge Martin Nolan said the company made a serious misjudgement on the morning of the incident but had acted properly and honourably in the aftermath.
He imposed a fine of €100,000 on GT Crampton and ordered it to pay the State’s legal costs.
Kay Baxter, an inspector with the Health and Safety Authority, told David Hayes, prosecuting, that GT Crampton was the main contractor and project supervisor for the site. At 9.45am, Mr Fowler and his colleagues were walking to their tea break when an eight foot board blew loose and struck him on the head. A weather warning about severe winds had been issued by Met Éireann and the site management was aware of this.