Premier fined €100,000 after death of worker
THE wife of a man who was killed in an accident at a Drogheda company in 2014 says she has lost ‘ her best friend, the love of her life’.
Paddy Lambe was just 46 when he died while working at Premier Periclase at the Boyne Road in Drogheda on October 30 2014 and last week, the managing director of the company, Gerard Teeling, entered a guilty plea on the firm’s behalf to a breach of health and safety legislation. They were fined €100,000. In her victim impact statement, read to the court by State prosecutor Kevin Seagrave, Mrs Lambe said: ‘You never think for one minute the knock will come to your door. You think that when you go to work you will come home’.
She said she will ‘never hear his key in the door, never hear him say: ‘I’m home’. She said: ‘ There is no-one to make plans with’.
A Drogheda company who pleaded guilty to a breach of health and safety legislation following the death of a 46-year-old man has been fined €100,000.
Gerard Teeling, the managing director of Premier Periclase, based at a 25-acre site at the Boyne Road, pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the safety, health and welfare of workers by failing to have a safe system of work in place on October 30 2014 when employee Paddy Lambe, described as an ‘excellent and outstanding worker’ lost his life.
The prosecution was taken by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and Inspector Frank Kerins gave evidence about the company, which employs around 100 people and has been operating for 37 years.
Mr Kerins explained how Premier produces a substance called dead burnt magnesia, otherwise known as periclase which is used as refractory linings particularly for the steel industry. The periclase is made by mixing limestone and water which is put through a pre-heater, around 30 metres high before it is heated with hot gas in a kiln that runs horizontally along the ground.
Judge Michael O’Shea heard how the pre heater is shut off every ten weeks as a matter of routine so that blockages created inside the pre heater by the limestone can be manually removed by workers, including Mr Lambe.
Mr Kerins said the usual method of cleaning the pre heater was for the workers to use long metal chisels, while standing on the ground, and poking them through portholes in the pre heater tower in a bid to knock the blockages to the floor.
If this doesn’t clear the blockages, the workers can insert jets of water into the pre heater tower to break up the limestone. Ahead of all the clearing operations, a team of mechanics are brought in to remove the fuses so that the machine cannot be turned on inadvertently and lowered the turntable inside the machine.
The work to clear the pre heater blockages had started the day before the accident and Mr Kerins said everything had been done properly and in accordance with health and safety legislation.
Mr Lambe, from Dawson’s Demesne, Ardee, was a member of a four-man crew who were continuing the work on the afternoon of October 30 2014.
Mr Lambe put a 9ft ladder and placed it on a turntable inside the pre heater. He had a small four feet board which he used to wedge between the cooling fin and the ladder. He was standing on that at the top of the ladder.
A colleague was standing on the turntable at the bottom of the ladder, while two other colleagues were standing at ground level.
Mr Lambe had the long metal chisel in his hand and there was a limestone blockage around two feet from his face. Moments before the accident, Mr Lambe told his co-workers to move back and Mr Kerins said he surmised the victim had believed the rubble from the blockage would fall away from him.
But it is believed a large amount of limestone instead fell towards the victim and he fell and was crushed. Workers from all over the plant, where his brother Michael was working that day, rushed to try to save him, but they were unable to save him.
Mr Kerins said that he conducted a thorough investigation’ and received full co-operation from all the workers, as well as the management of the firm.
The HSA inspector said it was his belief that while there were a number of risk assessments carried out for other aspects of work at the plant, there was no specific assessment for the cleaning of the pre heater.
A number of workers told Mr Kerins that the practice that was carried out by Mr Lambe had evolved over a number of years and they too had cleared blockages that were above them in this method.
Under cross examination from barrister Ronan Kennedy, Mr Kerins agreed with the barrister that the cause of the accident was down to ‘ a mixture of systems failure and human error’.
Mr Kennedy said both the management and the 100-strong workforce were devastated by the accident and a number of employees were given counselling and paid leave in the aftermath of the tragedy and the company closed down until after the funeral.
The barrister said that the HSA’s recommendations and those of an independent health and safety assessment firm had been taken on board and within weeks had introduced stringent health and safety methods and practices to ensure that an accident like this would never happen again.
Health and safety is a top priority for the company, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of an Austrian firm, Mr Kennedy said and where Mr Lambe’s brother still works.
Their method statement, provided to the HSA, is ‘ a model one’, the barrister added.
Managing director Mr Teeling read a statement to the court where he once again apologised on behalf of the firm and remembered Mr Lambe as a person who was a highly valued membered of the close-knit staff.
Mr Lambe’s wife, Geraldine, wrote a victim impact statement and said she deeply missed her ‘ arger than life’ husband, who was her best friend, the love of her life.
Judge O’Shea is was a systems failure, though it was not done intentionally by the company and they had expressed deep and genuine regret. They had dealt with all matters, including helping with Mr Lambe’s family, in a ‘correct and excellent way’.
He allowed the company six months to pay the €100,000 fine.