An investigation was started by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) in Limerick yesterday following an accident which claimed the life of a 49-year-old Italian worker at a construction site.
The accident happened shortly before 10am yesterday morning alongside the site of a major new hotel and retail development on Henry Street in the city centre.
It is understood that the tragic sequence of events unfolded as the construction worker, who was employed by a sub-contractor at the site, was unloading a cargo of steel bars from the back of a truck.
The vehicle had pulled in at the edge of the busy main road which borders the entrance to the construction site.
At that point, gardaí said, one of the steel bars came loose and got caught in the wheel of a passing car. This caused more of the steel bars to become dislodged from the vehicle and they struck the construction worker in the chest knocking him to the ground.
The injured man was taken by ambulance to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital.
However, efforts to revive him on the way did not prove successful and he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Gardaí at Henry Street confirmed yesterday that the victim was a 49-year-old married father of two who had been living in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
"A very unfortunate sequence of events led to this freak accident. A full investigation by our members is also under way," confirmed a Garda spokesman.
Gardaí were yesterday contacting relatives of the deceased and said his name would not be released until all next of kin had been informed.
Inspectors from the HSA examined the scene yesterday and a spokesman confirmed that a full investigation into the tragedy would be carried out.
Yesterday's accident brought to 35 the number of workplace fatalities in Ireland so far this year, according to the latest figures from the HSA.
It also marked the first workplace fatality in Limerick in 2006.