A CAVAN-BASED construction firm currently working on London’s 2012 Olympic Stadium has been fined €35,000 and costs after a building site injury which left an employee paralysed from the neck down.
P Elliott and Company Ltd recruited a crane driver’s helper who let a crane lift heavy metal cages over workmen’s heads.
Glynn McKenna, environmental health and safety manager with P Elliott and Company, pleaded guilty on its behalf at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to conducting unsafe lifting operations at the Clarehall, Malahide Road, Dublin, building site on October 24th, 2006.
The family-run company, which was established in 1942 and has an address at Century Business Park, Dublin Road, Cavan, also pleaded guilty to failing to guard openings on a building site roof.
It has no previous convictions.
Judge Frank O’Donnell imposed a fine of €30,000 on one count and €5,000 on the other.
The judge also ordered the company to pay the State’s legal costs totalling €26,969.30.
Insp Pádraig Early of the Health and Safety Authority revealed that one particular cage, which the helper had attached to the crane with two ties instead of four, disintegrated in mid-air and came to ground “like arrows” on top of Slovakian construction worker Marian Smutney (31).
Mr Early told Dara Hayes BL, prosecuting, that the injured man was left paralysed from the neck down after suffering a massive head injury and three fractures to his spine.
The company’s chief executive, David Mackey, expressed his “deepest regret” for what happened. He said his firm places “utmost emphasis” on health and safety measures and has been recognised and had awards from the National Industry Safety Organisation. Mr Mackey told Liam Gerard Reidy SC, defending, that the company has also made a specific DVD about safe lifting procedures since the 2006 incident.
He said Mr Smutney and his family received €3 million compensation and the company, which he described as “working to the limit of its overdraft”, now pays an extra €1.2 million insurance per year.
Mr Mackey also said that, ironically, the safety manager, who had previously been on site at all times, was attending a company health and safety training day in Croke Park when the incident occurred.
Mr Mackey reiterated his regret on behalf of the Elliott family and the board of directors “with sincerity and not with cringing hands”.
The court was told that the injured man had worked for a P Elliott and Company Ltd subcontractor.
The crane driver’s helper had been recruited from an agency several days before.
The safety inspector told the court that this helper was well-qualified with over 10 years of experience on national and international building sites.
Mr Mackey told Mr Reidy that the company had operated for 69 years without a serious incident or fatality.
He said it was company policy to do background checks on all new recruits and provide safety videos in six different languages.
Mr Mackey said the past two years had been difficult for the company, which employs 170 mainly Cavan-based staff, and the accounts will show an overall loss of €30 million when they are published next month.
The company continues with a 170-person workforce, some of whom have been in the company for 45 years.