Death of 25-year-old crushed against steel frame leads to $630K in fines

A plumbing company and a hire equipment provider have been convicted and fined a total of $630,000 after, in August 2023, a 25-year-old worker died while operating an elevated work platform. The worker was in a boom lift to install safety mesh for future roofing works when he was crushed against an overhead steel frame. No spotter was being used for the task and an operator protection alarm (OPA) fitted to the boom lift was disconnected, a WorkSafe Victoria investigation found.

Sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on 24 August after earlier pleading guilty to charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the company that owned the boom lift was convicted and fined $400,000 on two charges of failing to provide or maintain a safe workplace, while the company whose technician serviced the boom lift on the morning of the incident was convicted and fined $230,000 on a single charge of failing to ensure persons other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks. Both companies were also ordered to each pay $5525 in costs.

It was reasonably practicable for the company that owned the boom lift to have a system in place that required employees to conduct and document daily pre-start inspections of the boom lift and remove it from service where a safety malfunction or problem was found; and to have arranged for a licensed safety observer to be onsite, WorkSafe Victoria said. It was also reasonably practicable for the company whose technician serviced the boom lift to have identified the OPA was not operational during the service and to remove the boom lift from operation until the issue was rectified.

“As an employer, you must take all necessary steps to ensure your workers and others affected by your actions are safe and without risks to health,” WorkSafe Victoria Chief Health and Safety Officer Sam Jenkin said. “This tragic death could have been avoided if both companies had adhered to the relevant industry standards and guidance, and WorkSafe will continue to take strong action against workplaces who fail to do so.”

WorkSafe Victoria advised that employers using elevated work platforms such as boom lifts should:

• Provide and maintain, so far as is reasonably practicable, a working environment for your employees that is safe and without risks to health.
• Not allow an employee to perform high-risk work unless the employee holds an appropriate high-risk work licence.
• Provide and maintain fit-for-purpose plant and systems of work that are safe and without risks to health.
• Provide employees with any necessary information, instruction, training or supervision to enable them to perform their work in a way that is safe and without risks to health. This includes providing what employees need to:
  • identify handling hazards
  • safely operate mobile plant.
• Identify any fall and overturning hazards and reduce the associated risks. This will require a risk assessment and risk management process to identify any potential hazards.
   

Image credit: iStock.com/daseaford. Stock image used is for illustrative purposes only.