Latest Injuries & Incidents

A group of companies and directors have now been fined a total of $330,500 after a 54-year-old labourer sustained serious head and brain injuries by falling almost four metres between two floors at a building site in Auburn.

On 28 August 2009, the labourer was moving building materials between floors as part of a townhouse development in Auburn when he fell through an uncovered hole on one floor to the concrete floor around four metres below.

The labourer suffered severe head and brain injuries, tissue damage and bruising and required emergency surgery at Westmead Hospital to relieve pressure on the brain caused by a brain haemorrhage.
Multiplus Group Pty Ltd (Multiplus), the developer and manager of the construction at the site, and its director were the last of a group of defendants charged in relation to the incident.
Multiplus and its director were charged with breaching the Occupational Health & Safety Act 2000. Both the company and its director pleaded guilty. Multiplus was fined $110,000 and its director was fined $11,000 by the Industrial Court of NSW on 16 August 2013.

WorkCover’s investigation found the failure to implement and maintain safety procedures, such as covering or sectioning off the exhaust hole with barricades, resulted in the serious injuries.
In particular the company:

• Failed to ensure that the penetration was securely covered

• Failed to conduct an inspection of the penetration to ensure that it was securely covered

• Failed to warn people about the risk of falling through an open penetration

• Failed to conduct a risk assessment regarding working in the vicinity of an open unsecured penetration and failed to implement appropriate control measures to address these risks.

The size of the construction project meant there were a number of companies involved with responsibility for ensuring this worker’s safety.

Referenece: Workcover NSW www.workcover.nsw.gov.au

Ag company fined $140,000 after worker death

A Montmorency agricultural manufacturing company has been convicted and fined $140,000 over an incident which killed a worker who was struck on the head by a metal rod.  

TCMH Holdings Pty Ltd pleaded guilty at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday to one count of failing to provide or maintain a safe system of work and one count of failing to provide information, instruction or training to its employees.

The incident happened on 19 April 2010 at the company’s Thomastown factory. A worker was using a lathe to machine a metal rod which was spinning around 1050 times per minute.

The court was told the rod was protruding from the machine by more than a metre when it struck a nearby worker.

WorkSafe’s investigation found no guard was in place to cover the protruding piece of metal and that the machine’s operator hadn’t received proper instruction, supervision and training.

Magistrate Jack Vandertseen fined the company $70,000 on each charge and ordered it to pay $10,000 in legal costs.

WorkSafe Regional Director, Shane Gillard, said proper guarding was a simple, cheap and effective solution that went a long way.

“Machines are essential to businesses but the risks must be controlled,” he said.

“Prevention begins with understanding the risk and what can be done to prevent it. It’s achieved by ensuring people are properly trained and supervised and that appropriate guards are in place at all times.“

WorkSafe recently launched a public awareness campaign targeting dangerous machines, calling on businesses to do all they can to make machines safer.

WorkSafe statistics show that of the nearly 11,000 injuries caused by dangerous machines over the past five years, 71 per cent were in the manufacturing, construction, transport, warehousing and storage industries.

Referenece: Worksafe VIC www.worksafe.vic.gov.au