HAULAGE COMPANY PATRICK Monahan (Drogheda) Ltd has been fined €25,000 today after pleading guilty to a breach of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act in relation to the death of a toddler three years ago.

The fine was imposed by Judge Michael O’Shea in the Dundalk Circuit Court.

The case arose after three-year-old Desmond Dyas Jr was killed in an accident on Drogheda Town Quay on 10 November 2009.

The young child was with his father at the port on the day of the accident. They were in an area leased from the Drogheda Port Company to Patrick Monahan (Drogheda) Ltd when a machine driver employed by the firm started loading 22-metre long timber fir poles onto an articulated trailer by lifting them from a stack. This caused one of the poles that was in an adjacent stack to shift and roll forward from its storage location. It fell and crushed the young boy who had been walking next to the stack.

After the hearing, chief executive of the Health and Safety Authority Martin O’Halloran said, “This type of tragic accident can only be avoided if employers pay particular attention to the risk of members of the public interacting with the workplace.

“Where members of the public have access to a workplace, robust procedures should be in place to ensure that no work takes place until the people have moved clear and the hazard is removed.”