A Laois electrical engineering company has been fined €400,000 in relation to the death of a Laois father of four in a workplace accident at a Dublin hospital seven years ago.
However, the penalty handed down at the Central Criminal Court to the Portarlington company John Fletcher Ltd and a director led to anger in the courtroom with one member of the public describing the sentence as a ‘f**king joke’.
Emo native Alan Mulhall (34), lived in Portlaoise with his wife and children, when he was fatally injured when a low voltage switchgear weighing 760kg fell and struck his head while he was working at St Patrick’s Hospital Dublin on November 23, 2017.
John Fletcher Ltd, with offices in Portarlington, Co Laois entered guilty pleas to failing to discharge the duties of an employer as required by the Safety, Health and Welfare at work Act 2005, which resulted in the death of Mr Mulhall.
The company also pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to discharge the duties of an employer and one count of failing to take appropriate organisational measures to avoid the need for manual handling by its employees.
David Fletcher (36), a director of the company, entered the guilty pleas on its behalf. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to discharge the duties of an employer.
In her victim impact statement, Alan’s wife Viki spoke about the impact.
“He was not given a job that day. He was handed a death sentence that we will carry for the rest of our lives”.
Health and Safety Authority (HSA) Inspector Kay Baxter told Eoghan Cole SC, prosecuting, that John Fletcher Ltd were contracted to carry out works at the hospital as part of a project to update a generator.
David Fletcher of Main Street, Portarlington, was the company director with responsibility for this project, including health and safety, the court heard. Neither Fletcher nor the company have previous convictions.
Mr Mulhall was an employee of John Fletcher Ltd, having started work as an apprentice electrician in 2001. He was a qualified electrician and had been promoted internally to a site supervisor role.
The court heard that the accident occurred in a hospital plant room, during the movement of three low voltage switchgear, which were to be installed as part of the project to upgrade the generator.
The HSA are critical of the risk involved in manually moving the switchgear to the plant room, but acknowledge it would not have been possible to use mechanical equipment in the room. Double doors which could also have been used to access the room were obstructed by a temporary generator at the time.
These were later upgraded to allow for the equipment to be removed.
Mr Cole told Judge Nolan that the State’s position is that this work was carried out using an “ill-conceived plan”. The prosecution also does not accept that Mr Mulhall had the authority on the day to stop the work.
The court heard that John Fletcher Ltd engaged with the HSA investigation, but initially denied any wrongdoing or responsibility.
During the investigation, David Fletcher and John Fletcher suggested it was relevant that Mr Mulhall was not wearing a construction safety helmet at the time of the incident. However, the engineer’s report concluded that this type of hat would have offered no protection from the injuries sustained by the victim.
Alan Mulhall is survived by wife Vikki and children Jamie, Sean, Holly and Tom. In a victim impact statement, Mr Mulhall’s widow told the court that everything her late husband did was for their family.
Mrs Mulhall said he kissed her on the cheek that morning like he did every day on his way to work. “He was not given a job that day. He was handed a death sentence that we will carry for the rest of our lives”.
She spoke of the pain and grief of their loss and its impact on her and their four young children. She said what happened could and should have been avoided.
“Mistakes cost me my husband and my children’s father,” she said, later telling the court their lives had been “shattered” and would “never be the same again”.
“After seven long years of dragging us through courts, all we can hope for today is justice for this devastating and negligent crime”.
Mr Cole read a victim impact statement on behalf of Mr Mulhall’s parents, siblings and sister-in-law. They said their lives were “changed forever” when they were told their “beloved son” had been killed.
They said Mr Mulhall is greatly missed and is always in their minds and hearts.
Michael Delaney SC, defending, said he is instructed to apologise for the breach of duty as an employer which led to Mr Mulhall’s death.
Counsel said it is now clear that the contract should have been re-done and changes made to the plant room to allow the task to be completed safely. He said the company’s “fault” was that it didn’t seek to have these issues addressed “before exposing its employees to risk”.
An accountant’s report on the company’s financial position was submitted to the court. Mr Delaney said the company is profitable and has cash reserves, which are essential to secure large-scale projects. He said company directors take “modest” salaries, with David Fletcher’s salary being around €60,000.
Counsel said David Fletcher is married and has three children. He is an engineer and a grandson of John Fletcher – the company’s founder. He had been a director since late 2016 and was relatively junior at the time.
Judge Martin Nolan noted the “devastating” impact of Mr Mulhall’s death on his family and described their victim impact statements as “heartbreaking”.
“This family will have to continue without the help and guidance of a very good man”, the judge said, expressing the court’s sympathies to the Mulhall family.
He said his function was “to do justice to John Fletcher Ltd and David Fletcher” and said the evidence showed the plan to transport and unload this equipment was a “totally misconceived idea”.
“Anybody looking at it would say this was a very potentially dangerous exercise” which was “fraught with danger”.
He said the court was aware that the company was operating within a plan, but that the equipment should have been moved by mechanical means, instead of manually.
The judge said he had taken into account the seriousness of the offence, the guilty pleas, and the previous good record when constructing the penalty.
He noted that David Fletcher was the responsible director, but the court considered the company had the primary responsibility as “the scheme for unloading these devices was particularly ill-conceived”.
He imposed a fine of €400,000 on John Fletcher Ltd and fine of €5,000 on David Fletcher, both to be paid within six months.
As sentence was finalised, voices shouted from the body of the court “f**king joke”, and “do you not realise a man’s life is gone”.
Ms Baxter told the court that these devices weighed between 330kg, around 600kg and the largest one was 760kg. The court heard the HSA recommends a safe load for one person to handle is approximately 25kg.
The job on the day was to transport these devices to the hospital from the premises of John Fletcher Ltd. and to move them into the plant room in the hospital where they were due to be installed.
Once this equipment was removed from the trailer, it had to be transported over 50 metres of uneven ground to the door, then moved down a corridor to a plant room. The court heard they then had to be manually lifted into the plant room.
The court also heard that it was expected that the work would be carried out in a particular sequence outlined in the initial tender documents devised by another firm.
Five site visits were conducted before the work was to be done, with David Fletcher attending four of these visits.
The court heard the equipment was delivered to John Fletcher Ltd.’s premises on November 21, then loaded onto a trailer using a forklift.
The court heard that Mr Mulhall and three other John Fletcher Ltd employees arrived at the hospital at around 6am on November 23.
The intention was to slide the low voltage switchgear from the trailer using scaffolding planks, then onto a dolly for transport to the plant room.
The 330kg switchgear was moved first, with a plastic dolly breaking under its weight. It was then transported using a steel trolley to the plant room.
Two contractors on site came to help move the second switchgear, the heaviest one. The court heard it took the six men approximately one hour forty minutes to move this piece of equipment from the trailer towards the plant room.
At the plant room door, this switchgear, which was 2.1m tall, was manually tilted to fit through the 2m high door.
Once inside the room, this switchgear had to be re-positioned before it was moved to its final installation point. A first attempt was unsuccessful.
The low voltage switchgear was moved to another part of the room and as another attempt was made to move it into an upright position, it tipped over and struck Mr Mulhall, causing crush injuries to his head.
Sketches recreating the transportation of the switchgear were shown to the court.
The HSA started an investigation and a number of witnesses said they were unaware of any mechanical equipment to be used during this job.
The devices were later removed from the plant room, using a set of double doors which were obstructed on November 23 by a temporary generator and other devices.
Before the low voltage switchgear were removed using these double doors, the generator had to be moved and works carried out to increase the height of the doors.
The Wexford-based manufacturer of the switchgear told the investigation that the devices could be partially disassembled to reduce the weight, which wasn’t done in this instance.
Ms Baxter said this would have reduced the weight of the device by approximately 200kg, but it still would have been very heavy.
Ms Baxter agreed with Mr Delaney that the company had a specific contract in relation to the installation of a new generator.
She further accepted that substantial works were carried out to allow devices to be moved from the plant room using the double doors.
Ms Baxter confirmed that the investigators spoke to David Fletcher and John Fletcher, and both men made references to the construction helmet.
She also said that David Fletcher had responsibility for the project and was interviewed in 2018 as part of the investigation. It was accepted that he said during the interviews that he discussed disassembling the devices with Mr Mulhall and said the double doors weren’t used as they were too low.
It was also accepted that David Fletcher told the investigation that he spoke with Mr Mulhall before the accident and suggested the use of a hydraulic pallet truck, and that Mr Mulhall indicated to him that he preferred the dolly. It was also agreed that there is no evidence that a hydraulic pallet truck was unavailable at the time.
It was further agreed that an initial proposal made by the company’s solicitors in 2022 was not acceptable, but pleas were entered in January last following discussions between both sides.
The court heard that John Fletcher Ltd has been in operation since 1968 and directly employs around 60 employees.
John Fletcher paid for Mr Mulhall’s funeral, and continued to pay his salary to his widow for a period of time after his death. A lump sum was also paid from the pension scheme.
The company also discharged the HSA’s and prosecution’s costs.
Mr Delaney said the company acknowledged in its proposal to the prosecution in 2022 that the system for transporting and unloading was unsafe.
He also asked the court to take into account the guilty pleas and previous good record when imposing sentence.
