A leading US medical devices technology company has been charged with breaches of health and safety regulations over the death of a contractor’s employee who suffered fatal burn injuries while carrying out work at one of its plants in Co Cork more than three years ago.
Stryker Ireland Ltd was summonsed to appear at Midleton District Court on Thursday following a Health and Safety Authority (HSA) investigation into the death of John Murphy (41), a father of three who died from injuries sustained while carrying out at work at Stryker’s plant at Carrigtwohill in east Cork.
Murphy from Condonstown, Watergrasshill, Co Cork, suffered third-degree burns to 75 per cent of his body in the incident while working for facilities management company Apleona, which was doing contract work for Stryker at Anngrove, IDA Industrial Park, Carrigtwohill, on April 18th, 2023.
He managed to make it off the roof where he had been working before losing consciousness and was rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital, but he was later transferred to the burns unit at St James’s Hospital in Dublin, where he died on June 9th, 2023.
On Thursday, at Midleton District Court, Stryker Ireland Ltd with registered offices at Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, appeared on seven summonses arising from the HSA investigation into the circumstances of the incident that led to Murphy’s death.
The summons related to alleged breaches of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 including that Stryker Ireland Ltd failed to manage and conduct its operation in such a way as to ensure non-employees were not exposed to a risk to their safety or welfare at the Anngrove plant.
Specifically, the same summons further alleges that Stryker Ireland Ltd failed to ensure titanium particles did not rise from the production floor and enter the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system located on the roof, thereby exposing Murphy to risk.
The same summon further alleges this failure by the company resulted in sparks being generated by tools and that this in turn resulted in Murphy being set alight and suffering personal injuries that led to his death.
Another summons against Stryker, which employs more than 5,500 on seven sites in the Republic, alleges that it failed to ensure a suitable and appropriate risk assessment arising from an explosive atmosphere in the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system on the roof.
Other summonses related to the alleged failure to classify the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning unit on the roof as a hazardous or non-hazardous place and the alleged failure to identify those hazards and have a written assessment identifying the risks to safety, health and welfare.
Emmet Boyle, barrister for the Director of Public Prosecutions, told the court it had directed trial on indictment at Circuit Court level on all seven summons and that the DPP was also consenting to the defendant going forward to the Circuit Court on a signed plea of guilty if it so decided.
Barrister for Stryker Ireland Ltd Alison Fynes applied for discovery of the DPP file in the case and Judge Colm Roberts directed that the file be forwarded to Stryker’s lawyers Arthur Cox LLP and adjourned the matter until December 3rd for the preparation of a book of evidence if it is required.