DIY FRANCHISE B&Q Ireland Ltd has been fined €250,000 for a health and safety breach that resulted in a customer’s death.
The deceased, Michael O’Rourke, was seen by another customer “looking intently” at something in front of him before being hit by a half-tonne fencing panel bundle that had fallen 4.3m from the top of a stack.
Inspector Mark Madigan of the Health and Safety Authority said Mr O’Rourke died from blunt force trauma to the chest.
Ronald Metcaffe, on behalf of B&Q Ireland Ltd, Fitzwilton House, Wilton Place, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to failing to ensure a safe workplace in that a bundle of lap panel fencing was stored at an unsafe height resulting in the personal injury and death of Mr O’Rourke at a B&Q garden centre on the Belgard Road, Tallaght, on March 29th, 2009.
The company had no previous convictions. It must also pay €7,780.86 in Director of Public Prosecution costs and €3,066.25 in Health and Safety Authority expenses within three months.
Judge Patricia Ryan said the court wanted to make clear it was to determine a fine, adding “this is not to place any value on the life of Mr O’Rourke.” The judge said the court wanted to extend its sympathy to the deceased’s family.
The judge said the aggravating factors were the serious nature of the charge and that the “unsteady nature of that pallet was not corrected or seen”. She said mitigating factors were the plea of guilty, that the company had no previous convictions and its efforts to ensure such an event would not recur.
Insp Madigan told Róisín Lacey, prosecuting, that an engineering consultancy firm hired after the incident found that, though the maximum wind speed recorded at a nearby weather station that day had been 50km/h, this would not have been sufficient to cause top bundles of fencing to slide, had they been properly stored on their timber runners. DBFL Consulting Engineers concluded in their report that wind speed may have caused rotation in two loose skids found in the gap left by the fallen bundle. This could have destabilised the bundle.
Mr Metcaffe took the witness stand to offer Mr O’Rourke’s family his “deepest sympathy” on behalf of the company, which he said has done “everything possible so that something like this never happens again in B&Q”.