Engineering company and engineer awarded costs after being acquitted regarding fatal accident

A leading consulting engineering company and senior project engineer have been awarded their legal costs after being acquitted of breaches of the Health and Safety Act arising out of a fatal accident at a construction site.

Judge Martin Nolan told the jury on day five of the trial earlier this month at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court following submissions that he was directing verdicts of "not guilty" on the charges against both accused.

Hanley Pepper Limited, of Owenstown House, Fosters Avenue, Blackrock, had pleaded not guilty, through Mr Joe Ryan, to failing to design a system that was safe and without risk to the public at the Watermarque Building, South Lotts Road, Ringsend on dates between February 1, and February 28, 2002.

The charge detailed that the company failed to put in place an adequate support system for a staircase having regard to the load it was required to bear.

Mr Michael Jackson (aged 33), of Dun Emer Crescent, Rush, a Senior Project Engineer, had also pleaded not guilty to the same charge.

Mr Thomas O’Neill, (31), a construction worker from Lucan, died at the scene from crush injuries after a concrete staircase fell on him. Two other men suffered cuts and broken bones from which they have since recovered.

Judge Nolan said he had directed the verdict of not guilty after examining the prosecution case at its height and finding that the defendants had no case to answer. He said the bolts used to secure the staircase were not those advised and the advice and drawings provided by the defendants were not followed.

He said the matter was "serious in financial and human terms" and awarded costs dating back to the beginning of the case in 2002.

Two other companies were fined in 2007 at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in relation to the same incident.

Michael Reade, managing director, pleaded guilty on behalf of Reade Engineering, of North Richmond Street, Dublin 1 that the company failed "to ensure that persons not in its employment were not exposed to risk of their health and safety" between March 14 and December 12, 2002 at the Ringsend site in that "16/10 anchors for the purpose of securing stairs support system rather than 16/30 anchors as advised" were used.

G & T Crampton, of Ballintaggart Road, Clonskeagh, pleaded guilty through its solicitor Peter Mullen to directing persons to work in the vicinity of the stair well in circumstances where it ought to have known that it was unsafe to do so.

Judge Katherine Delahunt fined Reade Engineering €15,000 in October 2007 and fined G & T Crampton €50,000 in May 2007.