A week of serious safety incidents in Victoria

The week of 8 to 12 November proved to be a tragic week for workplace injuries in Victoria. Expressing its concern, WorkSafe is calling on both employers and workers to ensure high safety standards are adhered to in their workplaces.

On Friday, WorkSafe investigated an incident at a meatworks where a man suffered crushing injuries in a ‘knocking box’ used to kill cattle. He was hosing out the box when the hydraulics were activated. He was flown to the Alfred Hospital in a critical condition with crushing injuries to the head and upper body.

Early that afternoon, an electrician suffered burns while working on a power board at Olympic Park - the second serious electrical burn incident that week. On Tuesday, a man received an electric shock while working on an advertising sign near a shopping centre. He was hurt when part of the board he was holding came into contact with 22,000 V powerlines.

On Wednesday, a man lost a finger and suffered serious damage to two others while operating a circular saw.

Commenting on these incidents, WorkSafe Victoria’s Executive Director for Health and Safety, Ian Forsyth, said: “These incidents are a reminder to everyone responsible for a workplace to identify and eliminate safety risks.

“There’s not much difference between the incident which kills and the one from which you walk away saying: ‘That was close!’

“Telling your workers to ‘be careful’ isn’t going to cut it. The fact that nearly 29,000 people were hurt badly enough last year to make a workers compensation claim shows that much more must be done by employers and workers to prevent safety incidents.

“November-December is among the highest-risk periods of the year for health and safety - it’s harvest season, warehouses and shops are flat out and the pressure is on in the construction industry to get jobs finished before the long break.

“Now is the time to ensure safe systems are in place for all your workers, particularly as young workers are flooding into the market with school and university finishing for the year. Getting on top of training and supervision issues, ensuring shortcuts aren’t encouraged or taken, is essential, as is making sure people have the right equipment to do their job safely.”