Two companies fined £145k after workplace accident death

Two companies were issued with fines totalling £145,000 on Friday following a fatality at a County Antrim aqueduct.

Father-of-two John Traynor, 41, who worked for IJ Lynn & Sons, was fatally injured on Knockagh Road in January 2022.

The Ballycastle man died when the a forward-tipping dumper truck he was driving overturned.

The two companies, IJ Lynn & Sons Ltd, of Glenshesk Road, Ballymoney, and John Graham Construction Ltd, of Ballygowan Road, Hillsborough, admitted health and safety breaches and were issued with fines by Judge Gordon Kerr KC at Belfast Crown Court.

John Graham Construction Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of persons not in its employment.

It was fined £100,000.

IJ Lynn & Sons Ltd admitted a charge of failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare at work of all its employees.

It had a financial penalty of £45,000 imposed.

Judge Gordon Kerr said the fines were a “public acknowledgement that society will punish lapses in the protection of workers and will do so having regard to the harm caused, the degree of fault and the size of the company involved.”