Teenager dies in Co Cork workplace incident

Gardaí and the Health and Safety Authority have begun separate investigations following the death of a teenager in a workplace incident in Co Cork this morning.

The 19-year-old man from mid-Cork was working at the Eirebloc pallet factory in Lissarda some 11km from Macroom when the incident happened sometime before 11am.

It is understood that the man was working on his own in part of the yard loading steel girders when it appeared one of the girders fell and fatally injured him.

The alarm was raised and the emergency services attended but the young man was pronounced dead at the scene and his body removed to Cork University Hospital for a postmortem.

Gardaí from Macroom under superintendent Mick Fitzpatrick have begun an investigation and Health and Safety Authority inspectors are due at the scene shortly.

It is understood the tragedy is the second to befall the young man’s family and follows the death of his uncle in a road traffic collision near Ballyvourney in 2009.