County Derry company fined £110,000 following death of subcontractor

Following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI), County Derry company FP McCann Limited has today (Friday, March 13) been fined £110,000 at Antrim Crown Court after pleading guilty to a single health and safety offence.

The investigation followed the death of Mr. William Houston, a subcontractor working at FP McCann’s Loughside Quarry, 146 Belfast Road, BT40 2PN on 23 April 2023.

The court heard that on April 23 2023, Mr. Houston was assigned the task of driving a dumper truck, removing stone from the cone crushing plant and placing it into stockpiles.

At around lunch time, the cone crusher plant had stopped and a blockage was reported.

The plant was isolated and a large stone (weighing approximately 45kg) was observed to be causing the blockage.

The stone was manually removed from the crusher and carried to a raised conveyor catwalk, approximately 15ft from ground level.

During this move, the stone fell through the railings of the raised conveyor catwalk as Mr. Houston was walking below.

Mr. Houston was struck by the falling stone and passed away later in hospital due to injuries sustained.

READ NEXT: Derry man jailed for eight years over pipe bomb attacks outside homes

Prosecutors in the PPS’s Fraud & Departmental Section worked closely with HSENI to build a robust prosecution case.

Speaking after the hearing, Miss Sophie Pearson, an Inspector within HSENI’s Major Investigation Team, said: “This was a tragic incident. Employers must take adequate measures to prevent materials or objects falling from height. They must stop and consider what risks are involved in the task and take the necessary action, so that harm does not occur to employees, or as in this tragic incident, to someone like Mr Houston who was subcontracted to work at the site.

“Where it is not reasonably practicable to prevent objects from falling, employers should take suitable and sufficient measures to ensure that nobody can be injured. A simple solution such as an exclusion zone can be easily implemented to reduce the risk to workers.”