A construction firm has been fined €1.2 million after admitting health and safety breaches linked to a fatal roadworks incident in Donegal that claimed three lives and injured a fourth person.

On Friday 31 July 2026 at Letterkenny Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Roderick Maguire imposed the penalty on Whitemountain Quarries Limited following a prosecution by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).

The case arose from an incident on 20 August 2020 during night-time roadworks on the R238 at Three Trees, Quigleys Point, Co Donegal. At about 10.30pm, a family of four were travelling home when the car's front-left tyre dropped off the carriageway onto an unfinished hard shoulder. As the driver tried to steer back onto the live lane, the vehicle aquaplaned on a freshly laid surface, slid across the road and entered Lough Foyle. Three occupants drowned; the fourth sustained injuries and was rescued by emergency services. Investigations found there was a lack of appropriate temporary traffic management, including sufficient signage and traffic cones, to safely guide road users through the works area.

Whitemountain Quarries Limited pleaded guilty to two offences under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005: failing, so far as was reasonably practicable, to ensure that persons other than employees were not exposed to risks arising from the works (Section 12), contrary to Section 77(9)(a). One count related to the deaths of three car occupants; the second concerned injuries suffered by the fourth.

Mark Cullen, Chief Executive Officer at the HSA, said: "This was a devastating incident that resulted in the loss of three lives and caused serious injury to another family member. Employers carrying out roadworks have a legal duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that members of the public are not exposed to risks to their safety and health arising from those works.

"Temporary traffic management measures, including appropriate signage and traffic control arrangements, are critical safeguards designed to protect road users. This case highlights the potentially catastrophic consequences when such controls are not adequately implemented and maintained."