Worker dies after trench collapses on building site

A MAN who died when a trench collapsed on a building site was the 20th person to die in the construction industry this year.

The death of a man in his 60s, at a new housing site in Dunleer, Co Louth, was also the second tragedy this week involving a trench caving in. Shocked fellow workers made desperate attempts to rescue the man before his body was recovered by the emergency services.

Earlier this week, father-of-five Brian Colton, 34, from Glaslough, Co Monaghan, died in a trench after being trapped by steel plates and other building material on a street repair scheme in Ballymun, Dublin.

Yesterday’s victim, whose name was withheld by gardaí, was working with colleagues in connecting a sewerage system when the trench collapsed.

The body was removed to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda where a post mortem was later carried out. Both gardaí and the Health and Safety Authority are conducting separate investigations.

A senior construction inspector with the HSA, Jim Heffernan, expressed concern at the high level of fatalities and accidents in the industry.

Until this year, he said, there was a consistent reduction in the number of accidents which was brought about by a partnership approach involving the HSA and the Construction Industry Federation (CIF).

However, Mr Heffernan revealed provisional estimates point to 2,000 on-site construction industry accidents this year.