Inquests into workplace accidents and prison death

Criminal proceedings may be considered in relation to the deaths of two men in separate workplace accidents within days of each other in Cork, it has emerged.

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) told city coroner Myra Cullinane yesterday it is preparing separate files for the DPP as part of its investigation into the death of Donal Scanlan following a welding incident in East Cork last November; and also as part of its probe into the death of Peter Downey in a cherrypicker incident in the city’s main bus depot just days later.

Mr Scanlan, 21, from Claddagh, Co Waterford, was seriously injured in an explosion while welding at a metal fabricators in an industrial estate in Youghal on the morning of November 18, 2015. He was airlifted in a critical condition to Cork University Hospital and pronounced dead there the next day.