Key takeaway
This case is another example of the importance of undertaking risk assessments. PCBUs must take logical and straightforward steps that can help to minimise the likelihood of injury in the workplace. Specifically, this situation could have been prevented by using mechanical gates and exclusion zones.
About the case
A South Australian company has been successfully prosecuted for a breach of the Federal Work Health and Safety laws. The freight company pleaded guilty to a single charge of failing its duties under the Commonwealth Work Health Safety Act (2011) (WHS Act) after the November 2018 incident.
After delivering a steel coil in the north of Adelaide, workers were lifting the heavy interlocked gates on the truck’s trailer. The gates slipped and landed on the worker’s leg, fracturing it in many places. The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions accused the freight company of a breach of section 19 of the WHS Act, failing its primary duty of care to provide a safe work system. The maximum penalty for this offence is $1.5 million.
When sentencing the freight company, Judge Ian Press considered the freight company’s lack of consideration of the foreseeable risks to the driver and workers in failing to ensure the use of an exclusion zone. Using mechanical lifting of the gates could have avoided the situation. The judge stated that the company’s lack of safety systems in the workplace could have potentially been fatal.
