Family stages safety protest over worker's death
The family of a worker who was crushed to death by a truck today called for health and safety legislation to be fully enforced.
Justin Foley, from Rush in North Dublin, was killed in December 2002 when a truck backed into him during a loading operation.
At a protest outside the Health and Safety Authority headquarters in Dublin, his sister, Lauren, said no prosecutions had been taken against any of the companies involved.
“I don’t see the point in having regulations if you’re not going to enforce them because it’s no deterrent to companies to keep safety standards,” she said.
The inquest into the 21-year-old’s death found there were no safety procedures in place and the HSA had not been notified until a day afterwards.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.
Mr Foley’s family is taking a civil case against the company which employed Mr Foley as a transport clerk, the firm which owns the lorry and the company which owns the warehouse in the Ballymun Industrial Estate where the accident took place.
Ms Foley laid a wreath outside the HSA’s offices in memory of her brother.
The protest was also attended by her parents, Pat and Gerry, and her brother, Keith. His two young sons held up a poster reading “A hard day’s work never killed anyone? Justin Foley.”
Workers from the Siptu and Batu trade unions displayed 23 white memorial crosses, one for each of the construction workers killed in Ireland last year.
