Ballyhaunis company fined €30,000 in cherry picker tragedy

Ballyhaunis company fined €30,000 after cherry picker tragedy


A Ballyhaunis company were told at last week’s sitting of the Circuit Court in Castlebar that they were ‘very fortunate’ they will just have to pay a €24,000 fine after they were found guilty of a breach of safety after one of their machines was involved in a fatal road accident.
Ballyhaunis Plant Hire Limited were fined €24,000 by Judge Keenan Johnson and ordered to pay an additional €6,000 in costs after they were found guilty by a jury of failing to provide adequate information for the safe use of a cherry picker.
Before issuing the fine, Judge Johnson said he was taking into account a number of mitigating factors including the fact the company was in a ‘precarious financial position’ and how a ‘substantial fine’ would result in it going out of business and the loss of eight jobs.
The company were given two years to pay the fine but Diarmuid Connolly, BL for the company said that by restructuring the company and incurring ‘hardship’, the maximum they will be able to pay was €500 per month.
However, Judge Johnson replied that this equated to four years to pay and told Mr Connolly that he was giving them a maximum of two years.
“I’m sorry but I have looked at the bigger picture and the message has to be sent out that safety at work regulations are not there as lip service and have to be implemented, and if not there are consequences. I have taken on board all the mitigating factors and I have factored them into the appropriate sentence. In the circumstances I have taken them into account as fairly as I can and I will not spilt it up over four years. Your client must realise they are very fortunate with the sanction imposed,” he said.
The charge which Ballyhaunis Plant Hire were found guilty of related to an incident involving a cherry picker they had hired which was subsequently involved in a fatal road accident which caused the death of Ballyhaunis man, Peter Meehan (61) on August 30, 2011.
The cherry picker became detached from a van that was towing it and careered into oncoming traffic and into the car Mr Meehan was driving. He was killed and his wife was seriously injured.
Ballyhaunis Plant Hire was deemed to have failed to give adequate information about the safe towing of the vehicle. They were also charged with having no breakaway cable on the cherry picker but were found not guilty on this charge.
Mr Patrick Reynolds, BL for the State said the maximum fine which could be imposed was €3 million and they were also seeking costs.
Mr Connolly asked Judge Johnson to take a number of factors into account before sentencing including the fact the company had no previous convictions in relation to the Health and safety Code, and had never been sued for negligence.
He said this was not a reckless act on the company’s behalf and they were ‘truly remorseful’ for what happened. They had implemented changes across the board of the company as a result and do not hire machinery to people who are not qualified to use them. This according to Mr Connolly results in a commercial loss in a business which has been suffering since the ‘death of the Celtic Tiger’. He said the company employed eight people and a substantial fine could ‘push the company over the edge’.