Man admits work 'crushing' charge

A sawmill worker who restarted a machine which crushed a colleague to death has pleaded guilty to failing to take reasonable care.

Michael Lukan, 45, was inside the machine, repairing it, at Balcas Sawmill outside Enniskillen when his supervisor restarted it.

Raymond Alexander Irwin, 33, from Cashel Road, Cashel, Garrison, has been bound over for a year.

An original charge of manslaughter was not proceeded with.

The incident happened in May 2006 when Mr Lukan was fixing a chain inside the machine.

Prosecuting lawyer Philip Mateer said there had been considerable pressure to keep production going at the Balcas sawmill, and that the company is still being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive.

Mr Mateer said there ought to have been safety procedures in place whereby the conveyors would not have moved because the circuit would have been isolated, even with Irwin restarting the machines from the console.

He told the court that although the machine came with these devices fitted, "they had in fact been disabled some years previous" because they interfered with production.

"Clearly if these safety procedures had consistently been followed in this plant then the machine would have been locked out which would have meant Mr Lukan could have done his work in safety," declared Mr Mateer.

Bounding Irwin over in the sum of £2,000, Mr Justice McLaughlin said Mr Lukan had been killed "as a result of a failure to implement a properly structured system to protect the health and safety of him as a person" in a situation where he was working with "highly dangerous machines".

He told Irwin he could impose a fine but that it may be considered to be "derisory" but added that he considered the binding over to be the best way to approach the case.