05:14 pm, Friday 29 February, 2008

Source: SafeWork SA

A Whyalla engineering company has been fined $32,000 plus costs over an incident in June 2005, that left a 34 year old man with multiple serious injuries after he was run over by a mobile crane.

Multi-Skilled Engineering Pty Ltd received the penalty today after pleading guilty to one count of breaching Section 19 of the Occupational Health Safety and Welfare Act 1986 in failing to ensure the safety of an employee.

SafeWork SA prosecuted the firm after investigating how the man was struck during an operation to shift an eight metre long steel beam. In that procedure, the worker was engaged in ‘dogging’ or attempting to guide the load.

The court was told that after the driver lost sight of the man, he was knocked to the ground where the crane’s right wheel ran over the worker’s left leg, and torso before another colleague saw the incident and alerted the driver to stop.

As a result, the worker suffered multiple fractures and internal injuries, described by Industrial Magistrate Stephen Lieschke as serious and life threatening. Despite enduring considerable pain and stress with the likelihood of more surgery ahead, the injured worker has recovered sufficiently to return to his old job.

SafeWork SA’s investigation revealed a number of shortcomings:
• Inadequate hazard identification and risk assessment
• Failure to ensure the driver kept a proper lookout
• Inadequate communications for the task performed
• Lack of high visibility clothing
• No formal qualifications held by the injured worker to perform ‘dogging’.

Magistrate Lieschke said the ultimate cause of this incident was the failure of the employer to devise and implement a safe system of work:

“These failings when applied to hazardous work, contributed to extremely
serious injuries with long term consequences to (the worker), and gave rise
to a real prospect of death.

While the company took action to improve its workplace safety systems after the event, SafeWork SA Executive Director, Michele Patterson says it’s another obvious and tragic example of the consequences of not factoring safety into the core business of work.

OHS NEWS TIP – Crane Safe Work Method Statement

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