Workplace fall leads to fractured skull and company fine

A building company on the Gold Coast has been fined $65,000 after a worker fell and fractured his skull.

The carpenter fell three metres through a staircase well when working on a Benowa site that was managed and controlled by the company.

As a result of the incident the worker suffered serious injuries, including skull, cheek and vertebral fractures. His head injury led to ongoing slurred speech and amnesia.

The company was also ordered to pay more than $1000 in professional and court costs when it appeared before Southport Magistrates Court. It was fined after pleading guilty to breaching section 19(1) of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 for failing to meet its workplace safety obligations. However, no conviction was recorded.

The court heard that the incident occurred on 3 July 2015. There was edge protection on the first floor, where work was being carried out, but appropriate scaffolding for other floors had been delayed by bad weather.

Immediately before the incident, two workers were carrying a 50 kg prefabricated wooden frame, which was to be used elsewhere on-site, but previously covered the void area. Carrying the frame, the supervisor was walking forwards and the worker who fell through the unprotected gap into the void was walking backwards.

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland told the court the incident was preventable if the company had placed adequate covers or barriers over the void before storing frames over it, or stopped work until adequate protection was in place. In any event, workers also could have been instructed to discontinue work while awaiting the delayed scaffolding.

For some time prior to the incident, daily pre-start meetings had actually discussed safety issues, particularly the dangers of high-risk activities.

WHSQ told the court that while the defendant may have been impacted by delays with the scaffolding it ordered, and its site supervisor made certain decisions regarding safety, the company’s legal responsibilities were not abrogated.

In deciding the penalty, the magistrate took into account that the company gave some foresight into safety issues and had ordered scaffolding prior to the incident but it was delayed. Also considered was that the scaffolding was fully erected post incident and the company cooperated with the investigation and had a good corporate safety history.

Deaths and serious injuries resulting from falls from height continue to be a major workplace concern and the number of workers dying in falls has increased steadily from 10.4% of all worker fatalities in 2003 to 11.9% in 2013 and 13.3% in 2015. Most falls resulting in deaths were from roofs (59 in the last 13 years) and then ladders (54 over the same period).

Image credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Matt Kunz