$150K fine over crush fatality

$150K fine over crush fatality

A North Queensland diesel-mechanical repair and cane harvesting business has been fined $150,000 following an incident from 2017, which saw a worker fatally crushed while attempting to repair a cane haul-out vehicle.

On October 7 of that year, three workers including a director of the company were harvesting cane at a worksite. One of the vehicles used developed a hydraulic line leak and the director, believing it was a simple fix with a hose and directed the worker to an assembly area to correct the issue.

Twenty minutes later, a colleague came upon the worker who had been undertaking the repair and found he had been crushed between the vehicle he had been repairing and a stationary fuel trailer.

It was heard in court that the company had a system of work for field repairs, which usually saw mechanics called in to complete repair tasks. On this occasion, due to the director believing the issue was a simple fix that could have been completed by the driver, the process wasn’t followed.

The court found that the company should have had a prohibition in place to stop workers doing field repairs, as well as systems for conducting field maintenance safely. It was found that the duty holder failed to comply with their primary safety duty.

Magistrate Joseph Pinder, during sentencing, accepted that one of the directors had previously told the driver not to work on machinery whilst it was operating. He also took into account the company’s cooperation with WHS Queensland and an early guilty plea. He also noted the company had no prior WHS convictions, however, took into account general deterrence and the seriousness of the incident in handing down his decision.

The company was fined $150,000 plus court costs, and no conviction was recorded.

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