Workplace safety - One fatal accident is too many

Last week was a black time for worker safety, with four deaths in separate workplace accidents around the country.

Two workers were electrocuted - one was killed in Co Leitrim while working in a new house, while the other was electrocuted on a building site in Co Laois.

One of the men who drowned was found in an effluent water tank at a plant in Carrick-on-Suir, while the other man was a farm labourer who fell into a slurry pit in Co Donegal. Two other men were seriously injured in falls from heights on building sites in Dublin and Cork. The locations indicate the wide spread nature of the accidents. Yesterday, another worker was killed on a building site in Kenmare, Co Kerry, when a trench collapsed on him.