Plastic Water Piping (PWP) Limited have been instructed to donate €1,000 to a charity of the deceased family members' choice and to cover court costs after pleading guilty to three charges in breach of the Health, Safety and Welfare at Work Act 2005.
On 14 August 2020, a member of the public, Mr. Thomas O'Mahoney, was fatally injured when he was struck by a reversing Nightline/UPS courier van collecting and delivering parcels at the Plastic Water Piping Limited premises in New Ross, Co. Wexford.
Plastic Water Piping (PWP) Limited were in breach of the Health, Safety and Welfare at Work Act 2005 by failing to provide a traffic management system to safely control and manage the movement of vehicles and pedestrians at their place of work. This led to a member of the public being exposed to risks to their safety, health or welfare.
Assistant Chief Executive of the Health and Safety Authority, Mark Cullen, commented on the breach: "The movement of vehicles in workplaces where pedestrians are present is a well-known hazard that duty holders must carry out a risk assessment for in order to identify the necessary control measures to eliminate or reduce the risks to a reasonably practicable level. In this case, the failure by Plastic Water Piping Limited to undertake a risk assessment and identify the appropriate control measures led to this incident which was entirely foreseeable and preventable."
