Company fined after fall leaves worker in wheelchair

A building company has been fined $60,000 for an incident which left a worker a paraplegic after he fell from the rafters of a two-storey house in Keysborough.

Johns Lyng Insurance Building Solutions Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in Dandenong Magistrates’ Court to one charge under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004.

The 27-year-old worker was injured when he fell into a stairwell void while installing roof trusses in 2010.

The court heard that the worker was helping install new trusses following extensive fire damage. In order to weatherproof the building before forecast rain, he wanted to get the trusses up and tarpaulin over them quickly.

The roof and trusses were wet from earlier rain and, when he attempted to lift two trusses laminated together, he lost his grip and fell back into the stairwell void. There was no fall protection above the void.

The worker fell almost four metres to the landing below, breaking three vertebrae. He also suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs, a fractured wrist and a head wound.

Johns Lyng was the principal contractor on the site. The company which employed the worker, Mayneline Pty Ltd, faced court in February and was convicted and fined $60,000.

WorkSafe’s general manager for health and safety, Lisa Sturzenegger, said fall protection was among the most fundamental measures of construction industry safety.

“It is enormously frustrating that this essential part of construction work must still be a focus of WorkSafe’s compliance and enforcement activity,” she said.

Information on prevention falls from height in the construction industry can be found at WorkSafe Vic website.