A YOUNG Co Donegal tunnel worker injured in England has been awarded £475,000 sterling compensation by the High Court in London. His career hopes were destroyed by an accident while digging a sewer in central London.
Mr John Gerald Harley was aged 22 when the accident happened on September 26th, 1988, as he was working at the bottom of the Western Deep Sewer then under construction in Grosvenor Road, Victoria.
A loaded skip which was being hauled up the shaft by a crane suddenly came adrift. It crashed to the bottom, striking a steel rail which smashed into Mr Harley's right forearm. Only on his third shift working in the sewer, Mr Harley was knocked unconscious. His forearm was so badly shattered that it had to be fixed with a plate and he had to undergo bone graft surgery.
His dominant arm is now permanently weakened he cannot lift anything heavy and gripping causes him acute pain. His employment prospects are limited.
Mr Harley, then working as a junior pit bottom man, had hoped for a career in the well paid tunnelling industry, working his way up to pit boss.
Having gone to Britain to work in 1985, he returned to Ireland after the accident and now lives in Lower Laughanure, Annagry, Co Donegal.
He sued his employers at the time Newcastle based Beaver Civil Engineering along with site contractors, Sir Robert McAlpine and Sons Ltd, and three other companies involved in manufacturing and leasing out the crane, the clutch of which was said to have been defective.
All five defendants denied blame but Mr Harley's counsel, Mr John Crowley QC, said yesterday that settlement terms had been agreed after negotiations at the doors of the court.
He told Mr Justice French that Mr Harley would receive £475,000 agreed damages plus his legal costs.
His solicitor, Mr Leon Marks, a specialist in tunnelling, said outside the court. "This is a truly remarkable settlement for someone who had only done the job of a pit bottom man for two shifts and was injured on his third at the age of 22."