$1.1m WHS penalty sets Commonwealth record

National waste management company Cleanaway Operations Pty Ltd was sentenced on 28 May for two offences under the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act (WHS Act). The sentencing, which has seen the largest ever penalty imposed under federal WHS laws, was over an 18 August 2014 Adelaide truck crash that killed two motorists.

The company was fined the record $1.1 million over the crash that happened on Adelaide’s South-Eastern Freeway, with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions filing charges in 2016. The incident occurred when a loaded Cleanaway vacuum truck collided with three cars at the Cross Road intersection, killing two motorists.

The driver of a third car involved in the collision suffered serious injuries including a fractured neck and back, while the truck driver had a leg amputated and suffered a broken neck. Comcare’s investigation found Cleanaway’s driver training was inadequate, exposing the driver and other road users to the risk of serious injury or death, Comcare CEO Colin Radford said.

“The company’s failures had devastating consequences,” Radford said. “This was the driver’s first week in the job, and he was only trained on relatively flat roads in a truck with an automatic transmission. On the day of the collision, he was driving a manual heavy vehicle for the first time and had to navigate the steep descents of the Adelaide Hills.

“This created a clear and significant risk of injury or death. The obvious safeguard was for Cleanaway to have enforced a system of work that ensured the driver was supervised until he was experienced in operating a manual heavy vehicle in these conditions.”

Comcare acknowledged the difficulties associated with the lengthy legal proceedings, Radford said, caused by multiple legal challenges, and the impact this had on the victims and their families.

“This penalty comes more than a decade after the incident,” Radford said. “We sincerely thank everyone involved for their patience and understanding — especially those injured and the loved ones of those lost.”

The two charges are Category 2 offences under the WHS Act, each carrying a maximum penalty of $1.5 million. As a licensed national employer in the Comcare scheme, Cleanaway Operations Pty Ltd is subject to regulation under Commonwealth WHS laws.

You can read the judgment here.

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