The High Court has refused Kerry County Council’s bid to prevent the Health and Safety Authority from investigating a fatal crash at unfinished roadworks in Rathmore, County Kerry.
In a judgment delivered on 11 April 2013, President of the High Court Kearns held that the crash site remained a place of work because the road construction project had been paused for the weekend but was incomplete and due to resume on the Monday. The authority therefore had power to investigate under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the Construction Regulations.
The crash happened shortly before 10pm on 29 September 2012, when a car hit cones and a partly built traffic island on the N72. The vehicle left the road and overturned, and the driver suffered fatal injuries. Kerry County Council had begun traffic-calming works there on 13 August, with the project scheduled to last about 20 weeks. Traffic had been returned to two-way flow for the weekend, while the works remained unfinished.
The council argued that the site stopped being a place of work when workers left on Friday and the road reopened to the public. It said no employees were working at the crash location at the time and argued that the authority lacked jurisdiction. The council also submitted that other agencies and legal processes were appropriate for investigating a road traffic death.
The authority argued that the project had only been temporarily suspended, with work due to resume on Monday. Its inspector reported unfinished works, a site compound, barriers, cones, construction plant and partly built traffic islands. The authority also relied on the council’s safety plans prepared under the Construction Regulations.
The court distinguished two earlier High Court cases involving roadworks that had been demobilised or completed. Here, Kearns said, the works were plainly incomplete, and the weekend pause did not return the location to its normal status. He said the authority’s investigation was within its powers in these circumstances.
The ruling addressed the authority’s jurisdiction to investigate. It did not determine responsibility for the crash or the cause of the driver’s loss of control. The court refused the relief sought, and the investigation stay imposed after the council received leave to bring judicial review was pending the outcome of the proceedings.