Council had no safety plan for works at crash site

Meath County Council has admitted it had not prepared a health and safety plan for the roadworks at the site of the bus crash in which five schoolgirls died last week.

The council was last week censured by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) for its failure to put the plan in place and for not appointing a project construction supervisor to monitor the health and safety aspects of the construction work.

The HSA was examining the council's file as part of the ongoing investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fatal accident on Monday of last week. It found that the council had not complied with its legal requirements in relation to the road construction project.

The HSA last Friday issued a prohibition notice to the council ordering that it shut down the works on the Navan to Kentstown road. The council has now put a health and safety plan in place and the construction work has resumed. However, the road has not been reopened pending the outcome of the HSA investigation.

A spokesman for the HSA said he could not comment on its action against the council because it was still investigating issues relating to the construction site. However, he said prohibition notices are only issued where there are serious safety issues.

"If we issue a prohibition notice we are shutting down a site - that's not something we do lightly. We issue a prohibition notice if we believe there is a serious risk to life."

He added there were "other issues" relating to the works that the HSA was still examining while the road remains closed, but he could not comment further while the investigation was continuing.

A spokeswoman for Meath County Council said the failure to prepare the plan and appoint the supervisor was an administrative error on its part.

"There were gaps in the project paperwork. It was an administrative oversight in the preparation of the documentary material for the project file."

The council has since prepared the health and safety plan, she said, allowing works to resume. The work was proceeding as originally planned, she said, and there was "no change in the resurfacing work" as a result of the action taken by the HSA.

In response to criticisms that speed restriction notices or signs indicating a temporary road surface should have been erected from the beginning of the construction process, she said the project complied with Government regulations.

"The regulations governing signs are in chapter eight of the Department of the Environment's traffic signs manual and the project has been managed in accordance with those."

Meanwhile, gardaí are appealing to a lorry driver who was passing by the scene at the time of the crash to come forward. No description of the driver is available, but witnesses described his vehicle as a sand or gravel lorry.