The tragic death of a worker in Co Antrim was recalled in court this week as the firm involved faced action from the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI).

Montgomery Transport Ltd. was fined a total of £75,000 after pleading guilty at Belfast Crown Court to two breaches of health and safety legislation.

The case relates to an incident that occurred on 5th March 2008 at the firm's premises in Newtownabbey.

The court was told that Brooks Gilmore, a 23-year-old fitter, died when a lorry tyre that he was working on exploded.

At the time of the incident he was cleaning the lorry wheel with an inflated tyre attached by applying heat to the metal hub with an oxy-acetylene burner.

This practice - which is known to be extremely dangerous - had been going on for the previous two days with no action on the part of the company to stop it.

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A subsequent investigation by HSENI revealed that Montgomery Transport had not sufficiently assessed the risks involved in the activity.

In addition, the company had neither developed an adequate safe system of work nor supervised the activities of its employees.

Mr Louis Burns, Head of HSENI's Major Investigation Team said: "Companies need to properly identify and address hazards within the workplace.

"Employees need to have proper training and supervision. This case highlights the dangers of applying heat to wheels which have tyres attached.

"The outcome will be a sudden catastrophic failure, which in this case proved fatal," he said.

Prosecution lawyer Michael Chambers said the heat from the torch caused one tyre to explode, flinging Mr Gilmore backwards in the office chair he was sitting on.

He landed on a concrete floor and died almost instantly from his injuries.

Mr Chambers told the court that as far back as 1991, there was Health and Safety Executive documentation stating that "oxy-acetylene cutting and welding or any hot work should never be carried out when the tyre is on the wheel".

He added that it was apparent that "no-one in Montgomery Transport Ltd had ever seen any of these documents".

Defence QC Frank O'Donoghue told the court that Montgomery Transport had overhauled its approach to health and safety issues. He said Mr Gilmore's death was still felt and mourned by everyone who works for the firm.

"This was a truly tragic incident which, regrettably, was avoidable," he said.

(BMcC/KMcA)