{"id":577858,"date":"2026-07-31T21:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T21:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/577858\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T21:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T21:55:09","slug":"roadworks-firm-fined-e1-2m-over-breaches-that-led-to-death-of-father-and-two-children-in-donegal-crash-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/577858\/","title":{"rendered":"Roadworks firm fined \u20ac1.2m over breaches that led to death of father and two children in Donegal crash \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A roadworks company has been fined more than \u20ac1 million after pleading guilty to health and safety breaches linked to a crash in Co Donegal<\/a> that caused the death of a man and his two children almost six years ago.<\/p>\n

At Letterkenny Circuit Criminal Court on Friday, Whitemountain Quarries<\/a> admitted to a failure to manage and conduct public traffic safely through roadworks at Three Trees, Quigley\u2019s Point on August 20th, 2020.<\/p>\n

Judge Roderick Maguire imposed a fine of \u20ac1.2 million for the breaches. <\/p>\n

At about 10.30pm on the night in question, John and Geraldine Mullan, their 14-year-old son Tom\u00e1s and six-year-old daughter Amelia were returning to their home in Moville on the Inishowen Peninsula after a day out at a cinema and bowling alley in Derry.<\/p>\n

It was during Storm Ellen and there was a status yellow weather warning in place with driving conditions described as difficult.<\/p>\n

The front left tyre of the family\u2019s car dropped from the road on to the unfinished hard shoulder, the court heard. <\/p>\n

When John Mullan attempted to steer back on to the road, the car aquaplaned on the freshly laid surface and slid across the roadway into Lough Foyle. <\/p>\n

He and his two children were drowned while Geraldine Mullan suffered significant injuries and was rescued by emergency services.<\/p>\n

It subsequently emerged that there had been a lack of appropriate temporary traffic management signs and cones to guide vehicles safely through the works.<\/p>\n

Whitemountain Quarries, of Blackwater Road, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, pleaded guilty to offences under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005.<\/p>\n

In a victim impact statement, Geraldine Mullan said her life had been devastated by the tragedy. The specialist cancer nurse fought through tears as she told how she finds it difficult to live each and every day since the deaths of the three most important people in her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have difficulty coping with everyday life, navigating the demands without the support and safety I felt with John as my partner and \u2018steady rock\u2019,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Going from a family of four to a family of one has been devastating and the emotional and psychological impact has been overwhelming and life-altering, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no words that can fully describe the pain of losing my entire immediate family in one moment. My home, once full of life, love and activity, is now an empty shell, devoid of all our magical moments as a family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI continue to struggle with memories of that day, and the emotional impact is something I will carry for the rest of my life. Now almost six years later, I still have flashbacks, nightmares, and relive that night over and over. It is like a recurring nightmare\/dream that I cannot wake up from and the pain, the heartache, the desolation, the loneliness, the sadness and crippling fear is insurmountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronan Kennedy, counsel for Whitemountain Quarries, which is now part of the Breedon Group, said he first wanted to pay tribute to Geraldine Mullan\u2019s dignity and strength.<\/p>\n

He said the incident had cast a long shadow over the company and will do so indefinitely. He said the company had not ran into safety issues previously and prided itself on its record.<\/p>\n

Kennedy asked the judge to accept the company\u2019s remorse as genuine and to note its high level of co-operation.<\/p>\n

Health and Safety Authority chief executive Mark Cullen described the incident as \u201cdevastating\u201d and said companies carrying out roadworks are obliged to ensure they do not expose members of the public to risks.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Breedon told The Irish Times the company would not be making any further comment at this time \u201cout of respect for Mrs Mullan\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A roadworks company has been fined more than \u20ac1 million after pleading guilty to health and safety breaches…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1485,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-577858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-donegal","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}