A subsidiary of AIBP Ltd was fined €12,000 yesterday, having pleaded guilty at Clonmel Circuit Court to two breaches of health and safety legislation following a fatal accident in September 2001 at its facility in Kilcommon, Cahir, Co Tipperary.
The accident happened at around 4 p.m. on Friday, September 7th, 2001, when Mr David Jordan, Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, a driver employed by a firm of animal-feed producers, suffocated, having slipped into an offal pit at the Munster Proteins plant in Cahir.
A number of attempts were made to rescue and revive the man, but he was pronounced dead at the scene after an ambulance was called from St Joseph's Hospital, Clonmel, where a post-mortem examination was subsequently carried out.
The father of four had been tipping a truckload of material into a large bin when the accident occurred.
Nobody saw what happened, but Mr Jordan was found buried in the offal some time later.
Mr Johnny Walsh, for the State, said this was a tragic case and that Mr Jordan, who was not an employee of AIBP, had died from asphyxiation secondary to immersion in pit offal.
A mechanical engineer, Mr William Murphy, gave evidence on behalf of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) that the steel bin into which the offal, which was quite liquid, was being poured was 4.2 metres deep. He said Mr Jordan was unsupervised at the time of the accident, and the bins represented a danger even if there was no tipping going on. The court was told precautions and safety measures have since been put in place.
AIBP Ltd, trading as Munster Proteins, pleaded guilty to two breaches of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, and said it deeply regretted the tragedy.
Judge Yvonne Murphy sympathised with Mr Jordan's widow, Marie, who was in court, saying it would be little consolation but his death had left a positive legacy in that safety measures were now in place.
The judge fined the company €6,000 on each of the charges.
Afterwards, Ms Marie Jordan sobbed, saying she was extremely disappointed having travelled from Mayo for the court hearing.
A civil case on the matter was resolved some time ago, and an undisclosed amount of compensation was paid to the Jordan family.
The most recent annual report of the HSA revealed that Tipperary had the highest number of fatalities outside Dublin last year. The total number recorded by the HSA for the county in 2002 was seven, with three of these occurring in agriculture.