An electrical manufacturing company and one of its Canberra site managers have been fined more than $400,000 after a worker was crushed by hundreds of kilograms of cable.
“The risk was obvious and it could have been so easily avoided,” Magistrate James Lawton told the ACT Industrial Court on Wednesday.
“This is particularly aggravating.”
The incident happened in January 2022 at a site in Belconnen working under the name TLE Electrical, one of 400 sites operated by Metal Manufacturers Proprietary Limited.
The worker, who was 21 years old at the time, was winding cable with a machine that became jammed.
CCTV captured the cable rack falling on top of his head, pushing him onto the frame of the winding machine.
He suffered serious injuries, including multiple facial bone and skull fractures, scalp lacerations and tooth separation, which required surgery.
The court heard the rack, which was estimated to be carrying several hundred kilograms of racking and cable drums, was not installed according to Australian standards, and did not comply with the manufacturer’s recommendations or Metal Manufacturer’s own workplace policies.
Investigations also revealed the racking had not been anchored to the concrete flooring.
The court heard the site manager had instructed workers not to use the machinery, but that direction was not followed.
Magistrate Lawton said this impacted the seriousness of the safety breach.
“The step which ought to have been taken would not have been complex, burdensome nor mildly inconvenient,” he told the court.
“In fact, the step which ought to have been taken was known to the defendants and was part of the standard installation procedure for racks of this kind.”
He imposed a $375,000 fine on Metal Manufacturers and also fined the site manager $7,500.
The parties will also have to pay $35,000 and $10,000 respectively for WorkSafe ACT’s costs.
Metal Manufacturers said it had taken significant steps to rectify their failures since the incident, including creating a new role of Group General Manager of Health and Safety.
Victim’s mother ‘frustrated’ to learn accident could have been avoided
Outside court on Wednesday, the victim’s mother Jacqueline Sweeting told reporters it was difficult to learn that her son’s injury was a known risk.
“Clearly as a parent who’s son was so severely injured, that’s frustrating,” she said.
“Jesse’s accident was January 2022, and that year there were 195 Australians killed in workplace injuries,” she said.
“We are forever mindful of these people and their families, but the statistics remain appalling.”
Ms Sweeting welcomed the fine imposed by the court.
WorkSafe ACT Commissioner Jacqueline Agius said the sentencing sent a “clear message” to businesses and managers that they must comply with work health and safety obligations or be “personally held to account”.
“It is encouraging to see our courts appropriately penalising both the business and an individual responsible for these breaches,” she said in a statement.
Source: ABC News
