Company charged after worker seriously injured by steel beams

WorkSafe Victoria has charged transport logistics company Arrow Worldwide Pty Ltd with seven offences after a worker was seriously injured at a West Melbourne freight depot in May 2021. The company is facing three charges under section 23(1) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act for failing to ensure persons other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks. The company is also facing four charges under section 26(1) of the OHS Act for failing to ensure that a workplace under its management and control was, so far as was reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health.

The company allegedly failed to provide or maintain a safe system of work for loading freight onto vehicles using a forklift; failed to provide instructions to transport drivers; and failed to implement a traffic management plan to reduce the risk of mobile plant colliding with pedestrians. The 64-year-old truck driver was seriously injured when a pack of steel beams weighing approximately 1.5 tonnes fell onto him from his flatbed trailer as freight was being loaded onto it with a forklift.

The matter will be addressed at a filing hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on 31 May 2023.

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