HSE fined €500k for safety breaches that led to death of local paramedic

The Health Service Executive has been fined a sum of €500,000 for health and safety breaches that led to the death of a local paramedic in Cavan back in 2010.

Father of six, Simon Sexton  from Stradone, Cavan, died when he fell from an ambulance after one of its doors opened while it was bringing a patient to Dublin on June 3, 2010.

The HSE’s director of ambulance services, Robert Morton pleaded guilty on behalf of the HSE at the Circuit Criminal Court in March of this year to one count  contrary to section 19 of the Safety, health and Welfare at Work Act.

This was that the executive failed to have in its possession on June 3, 2010 a written assessment of the risks, safety, health and welfare at work to its  employees presented by the use of rear hinged side doors on ambulances in the north east region.