News

EVENTS

18th July

Serious head injuries that left a factory worker with debilitating brain injury has seen Co Tyrone food processor, Linden Foods heavily fined over an accident on its premises.

Lucas Da Costa, 42, who is originally from East Timor, was struck by falling pallets at the company's factory in Dungannon in February 2010.

Other companies operating such equipment have been warned to take adequate precautions after the firm pleaded guilty to breaches of health and safety.

The victim was trying to lift a single pallet when pallets, which were stacked three-high behind that, fell on top of him.

The truck he was using did not have any overhead protection and they landed on him, leaving him with severe brain injuries to such an extent that he now lives in a nursing home and cannot communicate in any way or do things for himself.

The firm was fined a total of £25,000 plus £1,200 costs at Laganside Crown Court, after pleading guilty to breaches of health and safety legislation at an earlier hearing at Omagh Crown Court. The case was brought by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI).