Causeway council fined £75k over binman’s death

Causeway Coast and Glens Council has been fined £75,000 over the death of an agency worker who was struck by a bin lorry.

John Winton, 51, who was from the Limavady area, died after an incident in Mount Eden in November 2018.

The council had initially faced three health and safety offences in connection with the death.

Last month, its chief executive David Jackson, acting on behalf of the council, entered a guilty plea to one of the charges – that of failing to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of an employee.

Mr Winton was one of three men working as part of a refuse collection team.

The driver, who was a member of council staff, was with Mr Winton and a third man, who were both agency staff and were collecting the bins.

The refuse lorry was reversing at six miles per hour when it struck Mr Winton as he crossed the road behind it.

During an hour-long sentencing hearing at Antrim Crown Court, Judge Rose Anne McCormick KC said that from the evidence put before her the death of Mr Winton was “foreseeable”.