A Northern Irish construction firm charged with corporate manslaughter and several breaches of health and safety legislation will not be paying the £60,000 fine it received in court because it is in liquidation.
Drumdollagh Construction Company Ltd pleaded guilty to three health and safety breaches but not guilty to four other offences, including a charge of corporate manslaughter, which remain on the books. The company is now in liquidation and its QC told the court that “the fine would not be satisfied”.
The HSENI brought the charges after a joint investigation with the Police Service NI into the death of one of the firm’s employees. The incident occurred during the construction of an apartment block in Bushmills, County Antrim on 9 May 2008.
With the site on a split level, a dumper truck was being used to take surface material from a lower level to an intermediate level via a temporary haul road, which was too steep to be used by a dumper. Colin Glass was driving the vehicle and, as he got to the edge of the excavation into which he was tipping the material and began the tipping procedure, the dumper overturned.
Principal Inspector Ken Logan, head of the HSENI’s Construction Group, told SHP that at the edge tipping point, there was no stop block and no edge protection on the haul road. The company had also failed to issue any tipping rules and instructions.
The vehicle was also found to have a number of defects, including a faulty handbrake, but these did not contribute to the incident. However, they were symptomatic of wider management failings, said the inspector, which led to the decision to charge the company with corporate manslaughter.
“Surface material was identified as a residual risk by the CDM coordinator,” he explained. “But the company had no method statement for how to get the material out of the excavation.”
Asked what the key failings of the company were, Inspector Logan listed lack of planning, inadequate risk assessment and method statement, and lack of supervision.
Appearing at Antrim County Court on 23 November, the former managing director of Drumdollagh Construction Company Ltd pleaded guilty to three breaches of health and safety legislation, and was fined accordingly: article 4(2)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 – £35,000; reg.23(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 – £15,000; and reg.30(2) of the same Regulations – £10,000. No costs were sought owing to the company’s financial situation.
The company pleaded not guilty to corporate manslaughter, as well as three other health and safety breaches, relating to driver training, supervisor training, and a failure to maintain the vehicle.
The company’s QC added that, because of its liquidated status, he was unable to comment on mitigating factors relating to subsequent action taken by the firm to avoid a similar incident. Nevertheless, the company cooperated with the investigation and expressed its remorse to Mr Glass’s family.
However, his widow expressed sadness that the company had gone into liquidation and had no liabilities.
After the court hearing, Inspector Logan said: “This accident could easily have been prevented. The dangers of failing to manage construction work are again the main cause of this tragic accident. Companies have a legal duty to ensure that an adequate health and safety plan is developed, taking on board the residual risks identified by the design team in the pre-construction information pack.”
He concluded by drawing the construction industry’s attention to the HSE guidance entitled ‘The Safe use of vehicles on construction sites’, describing it as “essential reading”.
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Any bets that the directors are still in nice houses, nice cars and back in business under a different name??
Indeed Phil, this is why the law should penalise individuals and custodial sentences should be a common alternative to pecuniary sanctions in such cases.
Absolute disgrace! eg – if you get cuaght out with beenefit fraud you have to pay it back (and rightly so) no matter what.
Why should it not be the same for this? Cowboys….