Further Queensland Prosecutions

As reported by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (WHSQ), Gough Industries Pty Ltd was fined $120,000 in the Townsville Magistrates Court after a worker sustained fatal head injuries when he was crushed between a tank and a forklift.

The PCBU (Gough Industries Pty Ltd) pleaded guilty to breaching its obligations under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, having failed to ensure its workers were not exposed to risk. On 20 February 2015, Mr. Luke Summers and two of his workmates were moving a large polyethylene cylindrical tank with two forklifts. A dual lift is generally done with a third person, but on this occasion, the third worker left the area during the move. Mr. Summers was out of eyesight from his other workmate, who was operating one of the forklifts. The 24-year-old was between the tank and second forklift when the load shifted, crushing him to death—a tragic loss all for the sake of taking a shortcut.

Just a week later, another Townsville company, BJ Morrow Concreting Pty Ltd, faced the same court for a sentence hearing into the death of Mrs. Phyliss Batchler. It was heard on 14 February 2015, Mrs. Batchler was walking along the existing pathway on an aged care facility when the wheel of her walker went over the edge of the excavated side, causing her to fall. She sustained serious neck and pelvis injuries and died in hospital 20 days later from complications.  The failure to control safety risks around concrete works cost the elderly woman dearly and the PCBU (BJ Morrow Concreting Pty Ltd) a $120,000 fine.

At a sentence hearing exactly two years after Mrs. Batcher’s death, BJ Morrow Concreting Pty Ltd was charged under the Work Health Safety Act 2011 for not having proper safety controls in place while widening a pathway at the aged care facility. The prosecution found this case particularly frustrating as the defendant had been warned about the residents’ care needs and the possible dangers of using safety mesh and star pickets as barriers, as mobility aids could get caught in the mesh.

As per my article dated 6 AUG 2016 (Fines Hit Record Levels), the number of prosecutions and the extent to which financial penalties are being applied has not only increased in Victoria but, Queensland too. Precedence affords judges in other states the luxury of expanding the application of the law and the associated financial penalties (up to the legislated maximum)—clearly, this is now taking place.