Workplace death ‘could have been easily avoided’

A HEALTH and safety official said yesterday that a workplace accident where a Clare County Council employee suffered fatal injuries “could have been easily avoided” if the proper safety measures were in place.

At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, Clare County Council pleaded guilty to four counts of breaching health and safety regulations on May 17, 2006, when council employee Tomas O’Grady was ‘catapulted’ from a nine-ton dump truck suffering serious injury at council roadworks on the main Ennis to Tulla Road.

The manager of the road re-alignment project, Michael Scully, 64, of Oakwood, Sixmilebridge, Co Clare, pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching health and safety regulations on the same date.