INVESTIGATORS examining a fatal accident at a B&Q hardware store in Dublin last week are looking at the possibility that material may have been blown over by strong winds.

Dublin Bus driver Michael O'Rourke (63) was killed last Sunday when fencing material fell and crushed him in the garden centre section of the outlet. Investigations by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and gardaí are ongoing, but it is believed the accident may have been caused by wind leading to material falling some 30 feet before hitting O'Rourke in the chest. He died instantly.

A friend who accompanied O'Rourke is believed to have been waiting for more than an hour outside, unaware the accident had occurred until the arrival of an ambulance.

O'Rourke's niece Aisling said: "His friend that was with him went outside. I think, from what I can gather, he went to get the car and the trailer to put everything into it.

"His friend knew no more only that the shop was closed and people were being ushered out of it. When he tried to get back in to see what the problem was, they wouldn't let him in. They said there was an electrical fault and that he couldn't get into the store."

The man then explained to them that his friend was inside and that he wanted to make sure he was alright.

"Before he knew it, his friend was being stretchered out," Aisling told local radio station KFM.

"Now seemingly what happened was, he went back – why we don't know, possibly to check the fencing again, I don't know – but the fencing from the top shelf fell down and crushed him to death...

"They got him to the hospital fairly quickly after the accident but they said there was no pulse when he got there and that it was most likely instant."

"He was a bus driver you know and we thought, if it was an accident on the road we would understand it and we would accept it more."

O'Rourke was buried in Shankill, south Dublin, last week where his Dublin Bus colleagues arrived in uniform as a mark of respect. He is survived by his wife Pat, daughter Clodagh and son Paul.

O'Rourke was a popular member of staff at Dublin Bus and was just two years from retiring from the Donnybrook 2 terminus in which he had worked for 35 years. He drove on the No 17 route from Blackrock to Dolphin's Barn.