FIRMS 'MUST FACE TOUGHER SENTENCE' OVER BRIDGE DEATHS

Inquest told DPP says €225k fines were ‘unduly lenient’

- DAVID RALEIGH

THE DPP wants stiffer sentences against firms who were fined after pleading guilty to charges linked to the deaths of two stonemasons, their inquest heard yesterday. 

The jury at Limerick Coroner’s Court recorded a verdict of “misadventure” in the deaths of Bryan Whelan, who was 29, and 26-year-old TJ O’Herlihy.

They drowned in the River Shannon, Limerick on August 29, 2015.

Two companies were fined €225,000 after admitting breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act, before Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, last October.

Mr Whelan, of O’Briensbridge, Co Clare, and Mr O’Herlihy, from Castleisland, Co Kerry, were on a steel cage over the side of Thomond Bridge attached by a wire rope attached to a winch crane.

The inquest, held at Kilmallock courthouse, heard the wire rope “snapped” and the cage carrying the two stonemasons plunged into the river.

An “audible alarm”, which should have sounded to warn the crane operator of the critical situation, also failed.