SA transport business fined over forklift injury

The transport company Kerafi, trading as Rapid Refrigerated Transport, was recently convicted and fined $24,000, after pleading guilty to a breach of the Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Act 1986.

The company was charged under section 23 of the Act, which requires the occupier of a workplace to ensure the means of access to and egress from the workplace are safe.

SafeWork SA prosecuted after investigating an incident at the company’s premises in 2007 in which a delivery driver tripped over the tines of a forklift that was about to exit the curtained doorway of a cold-room. He suffered a head injury consistent with concussion at the time, but the court heard that the man’s condition had deteriorated after the incident to the point that he was no longer able to work.

The court was also told that both forklifts and pedestrians were required to use this common doorway, a situation Industrial Magistrate Stephen Lieschke said created “an unnecessary risk of collision … [which] existed on a daily basis.”

SafeWork SA Acting Executive Director Juanita Lovatt said the case demonstrates the risk of harm that arises when people are not separated from working machinery such as forklifts: “People have been killed and injured at workplaces where such systems have either failed or were non-existent.

“A traffic-control system, rigorously and consistently enforced, is a must at all workplaces where machines such as forklifts are operating in close proximity to pedestrians.”