PAIR DIED IN RIVER FALL AFTER SAFETY FAILURE ON CRANE
Stonemasons plunged to death while working in cage court told
TWO men plunged to their deaths in the River Shannon after a safety mechanism on a crane, which was holding a steel cage carrying the men, failed to operate, a court heard.
Bryan Whelan, 29, of O’briensbridge, Co Clare, and 36-year-old TJ O’herlihy, from Castleisland, Co Kerry, drowned as they could not escape from the metal contraption.
The stonemasons had been harnessed into the cage and were wearing lifejackets, as was legally required.
They had been carrying out specialised repair works on the south side of Thomond Bridge, Limerick city.
However, a safety mechanism aimed at preventing weight overloading on the crane failed, resulting in “unbearable stress”.
That caused a wire rope which was holding the cage above the river to snap, an inquest yesterday heard.
The men plunged to their deaths into the River Shannon on August 29, 2015.
A third worker, Paul Murphy, from Askeaton, who was also working on the platform at the time, managed to free his harness and was rescued in the Shannon estuary by emergency first responders.
Separate investigations by the Garda and the Health and Safety Authority followed resulting in criminal charges against two companies, Nationwide Crane Hire Ltd, Dock Road, Limerick, and, Palfinger Ireland Ltd, Church Hill, Cloncollog, Tullamore, Co Offaly.
Both firms pleaded guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Palfinger supplied the winch crane to Nationwide on March 12, 2003, but unbeknown to Palfinger, the crane’s user manual was missing a chapter on the importance of frequently carrying out testing of the crane’s overload protection system, which it later emerged had failed on the day of the “catastrophic tragedy”.
The crane was mounted onto a flatbed lorry on the bridge with an extendable telescopic winch that held the men in the platform cage via a wire rope or cable.
Palfinger pleaded guilty that it failed to take steps necessary to ensure Nationwide was provided with adequate information about the crane and its operations to ensure that when it was in use it would be safe.
Nationwide pleaded guilty that, being an employer, it failed to ensure that contracted workers were not exposed to risks to their safety, health and welfare.
It also admitted it failed to ensure the winch crane was in a safe condition, in particular, the overload protection system, and “as a consequence TJ
O’herlihy and Bryan Whelan died”. There were emotional scenes in the court as Mr Costelloe read out a victim impact statement written by Mr O’herlihy’s partner Therese “Tess” Wigsten, mother to their two young children Conor, 10, and seven-year-old Katie. They had travelled to the court hearing from their home in Sweden.
Ms Wigsten. wrote: “Conor was three years old and Katie was six months when their Dad died, we were not the ‘typical or normal’ family because our son has a progressive mitochondrial disease and has special needs, he needs full-time help with everything.
“My children have lost one of the most important persons in their life, their Dad; Katie didn’t even get to know him, Katie will never experience how it is to be ‘Daddy’s girl’.”
Katie wrote how “life would have been more beautiful and nicer if Dad was alive, and if I could turn back time I would tell Dad never to take the job”.
Conor wrote: “I miss my Dad, I wish he was here to help me, to carry me and play with me.”
Judge Tom O’donnell adjourned sentencing to October 7.