A FAMILY-RUN construction company has been fined €150,000 for breaches of health and safety regulations which led to an employee’s death.
Vincent Darcy, an inspector with the Health and Safety Authority, said Adrian Mihoc had been working in an excavation pit during construction at the company’s premises when a bucket attached to an excavator came loose and struck him, killing him almost instantly.
Mr Mihoc (34), had requested the excavator’s driver, who had been only qualified to use the machine in a quarry at the time, to lift one more load of steel bars in the pit towards the end of the day after he had reattached the machine’s bucket. The driver left the bucket on the machine for this final lift, but it came loose and struck Mr Mihoc and brushed off a colleague, who escaped uninjured.
Mr Darcy told Dara Hayes, prosecuting, that employees working that day had received no induction training, nor had their safety cards been checked.
Concast Precast Limited, represented by company secretary Bernard Quinn, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to failing to provide a safe work practice at Hazelhatch Road, Newcastle, Co Dublin, on April 4th, 2008, leading to Mr Mihoc’s injury and death.
It also pleaded guilty to failing to provide a written assessment of risk on the same date and location.
The company, which has operated for 35 years, had no previous convictions.