12:04 pm, Thursday 31 January, 2008

ource: Worksafe SA

Castalloy Manufacturing Pty Ltd (trading as Ion Automotive) has been fined a total of $105,870 today by the SA Industrial Relations Court, after pleading guilty to two counts of failing to ensure the safety of employees whilst at work.

The incidents happened in February and May of 2005 at the company’s North Plympton and Wingfield plants.

In the first, a 38 year old male labour hire employee had his right index finger crushed between a forklift tine and a degassing machine. In the second, a 22 year old man, also a labour hire employee, suffered finger injuries when they were caught in an unguarded impeller fan of a bead blaster machine.

The fines of $52,000 for each count were higher due to two prior convictions on similar matters at the time these incidents occurred.

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11:59 am, Thursday 31 January, 2008

Source: Worksafe SA

Two incidents over 15 days at Mt. Gambier’s Western Tavern Hotel in October 2004 have resulted in both the former operating company and its Managing Director being fined for breaches of workplace safety laws.

In the incidents, two male kitchen hands aged 18 and 14 at the time each suffered serious burns as a result of contact with hot water in the kitchen area.

Hyledate Pty Ltd pleaded guilty and was fined $22,500 on two counts, while the companies OHS officer pleaded guilty and was fined $3,750 for his failure to take the necessary steps to comply with the relevant safety laws.

The company sold the hotel in November 2004.

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02:34 pm, Wednesday 30 January, 2008

Source: AAP

THE State Government is poised to admit liability and pay compensation after one of its departments sent three truckies to their deaths in a bushfire.

The truck drivers were killed when swirling fire trapped them on the Great Eastern Highway, west of Kalgoorlie, at about 8.45pm on December 30.

The road had been reopened about an hour earlier by the Department of Environment and Conservation.

While a possible coronial inquest into the tragedy is months away, the state Government’s RiskCover last week invited trucking company Darogi to make a claim for its commercial losses in the blaze.

Four trucks were incinerated in the inferno, which burned for weeks in the Boorabbin National Park.

RiskCover, the arm of the West Australian Insurance Commission representing government agencies, began assessing the losses of Perth trucking company Darogi last Monday with a view to making a payout.

The Insurance Commission of Western Australia’s managing director Vic Evans could not be reached yesterday to discuss compensation.

But a spokesman from the Department of Environment and Conservation said payments would be in keeping with the department’s response to the tragedy.

He said the department had not and would not shirk its responsibilities to those affected by the tragedy.

Darogi owner Darryl Gibaud – who lost friends and employees Robert Taylor and Lewis Bedford in the blaze – said the RiskCover assessor invited him to make a claim that would be reviewed against its own assessment of his commercial losses.

“They have told me the Government will admit liability,” he said.

“First they want to see if I need any emergency relief, then they will start looking at what compensation to pay me.”

Mr Gibaud said one of his trucks and two attached semi-trailers were destroyed in the fire that killed Taylor and Bedford.

He estimated that after an expected payout from his own insurer, he would sustain continuing losses of about $250,000 because of the fire.

RiskCover’s assessment comes after Mr Gibaud threatened to sue the Carpenter Government.

It is unclear yet whether the families of the deceased men plan to take any legal action.

Senior officers from the Department of Environment and Conservation this month visited the families of the three men to apologise for the decision to reopen the road.

The department officers offered their deepest sympathy and financial assistance, including funeral costs.

DEC drove Mr Taylor’s belongings to the south coast town of Esperance at his cousin’s request.

Bedford, 60, and Taylor, 46, both from Two Rocks, died in their truck.

Trevor Murley, 53, of Hovea, was incinerated nearby in another truck, one of a convoy of 15 vehicles allowed through a section of Great Eastern Highway between Coolgardie and Southern Cross.

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11:41 am, Monday 28 January, 2008

Source: ABC News

WorkCover New South Wales has issued a warning to farmers and employers about the safe use of all-terrain vehicles.

The reminder follows the death of a 73-year-old Mudgee farmer, who was found under his quad bike last week.

The acting chief executive officer of WorkCover, John Watson, says initial investigations into the accident reveal the man was using the vehicle to spray weeds.

Mr Watson says it is vital farmers do not overload or incorrectly ride quad bikes.

“A quad bike is a very versatile piece of equipment and a useful piece of equipment around the farm, but often when we are investigating matters related to fatalities or serious injury involving quad bikes, we find the bike has been overloaded or indeed isn’t begin ridden correctly, or in terrain which is too steep for the nature of the bike itself,” he said.

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08:22 am, Monday 28 January, 2008

Source: AAP

TWO men are in a serious condition in hospital after being catapulted from a cherrypicker at a property north west of Kilcoy.

At about 3.30pm (AEST) yesterday emergency crews were called to a property about 1 km from Kilcoy where both men were found badly injured on the ground. They were airlifted to hospital.

“It is believed a tree struck the cherrypicker which catapulted the two occupants to the ground,” an RACQ CareFlight spokesman said in a statement.

One of the men, a 54-year-old from Kilcoy, broke both his arms and suffered serious head injuries. The second man also suffered head injuries.

Workplace Health and Safety officers will investigate the incident, police said.

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02:38 pm, Sunday 27 January, 2008

Source: The Age

A 36-year-old man from Queensland has died from being crushed in an industrial accident in South Australia’s northeast.

The contract worker was part of a drilling unit working at Santos’s oil and gas fields about one hour east of Moomba near the border between South Australia and Queensland.

A spokesman for SafeWork SA, which is responsible for administering occupational health, safety and welfare and industrial relations laws in SA, said the accident happened about 10am (CDT) Sunday.

“He was crushed between two pieces of equipment,” the spokesman said.

“He was a contractor with a drilling unit.”

A spokesman for Santos said “with great sadness” he could confirm a fatal incident had occurred on a drilling rig on Sunday morning.

He said it was under investigation and Santos would be assisting those investigations but could not currently give any further details.

A spokeswoman for the drilling company Weatherford Drilling International also refused to give any further details of the incident.

Police earlier said it occurred about an hour east of Moomba when a piece of machinery fell on the man.

Police, SafeWork SA representatives and a spokesman for Weatherford Drilling are currently travelling to the accident site.

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08:15 am, Sunday 27 January, 2008

Source: The Age

A BRAWL in which one man was stabbed to death at a winery in north-east Victoria on Saturday night could have been the result of a dispute between legal and illegal foreign workers.

Twelve Asian men and women were questioned by homicide squad detectives at the St Kilda Road police complex about the killing after turning themselves in yesterday morning at Whitfield police station, 50 kilometres south of Wangaratta.

A 58-year-old Malaysian man was arrested after hiding near the winery overnight. He was in Wangaratta Hospital yesterday evening with a head injury sustained in the fight.

The group had fled the winery in a van soon after the fight, in which another two men were seriously injured.

The son-in-law of the owners of Politini Wines, near the small town of Cheshunt, said yesterday that a migrant worker who rented accommodation at the vineyard, but did not work there, arrived at their house and begged the family for help.

After calling an ambulance, Luis Simian found the fatally injured man lying near one of the nearby converted tobacco cottages the workers rented, and tried to staunch the bleeding from a chest stab wound.

“He was in a lot of trouble, and I started applying pressure to the wound in his chest … He pretty much died while I was holding him,” Mr Simian said.

He found the other two injured men lying just outside and in the doorway of another cottage. The men had stab wounds and were both in a stable condition in The Alfred hospital.

Mr Simian said he had been told by police the dispute might have resulted from tension between workers with visas and those working illegally.

“The police have informed me that they think it was some of the Asians that had visas against some of the illegals who were muscling in on their work.”

A Department of Immigration and Citizenship spokesman said the department would not comment on the case while police inquiries were continuing.

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11:16 am, Saturday 26 January, 2008

A MAN was killed this afternoon after an industrial accident on an oil drilling rig at Moomba, in the state’s far-north.

Reports of how the accident occurred are conflicting with police advising the man was working at Precision Drilling when he was hit by a piece of machinery just before 12.30pm today.

SafeWork SA spokesman Peter Adams said inspectors were making their way to the site, believed to be about one kilometre east of Mooba.

“We understand the male has suffered fatal crush injuries while working on an oil rig,” he said.

“We are still to get inspectors on site but the information we have is that the man was caught between a manual rig pole and mast”.

The 69-year-old Ballarat man may have fallen from the ladder up to two days ago, police say.

He was found dead today at a house in Aurora Crescent at Torquay.

“Police believe that the man was working on the underside of a first floor balcony with a circular saw,” police said in a statement.

“For a reason yet to be determined the man fell about a metre from the two stepladders that he was using as a brace, and hit the ground.

“Police believe that as he was falling he dropped the saw which has cut into his leg.”

A WorkSafe team was en route to the property, a spokesman for the health and safety regulator said.

“This death comes as a warning as we enter the long weekend when lots of people will be working up and down ladders,” he said.

“Some people are lucky enough to dust themselves off and walk away but it’s essential that the proper safety equipment be used at all times to save people the pain and suffering that can occur such as in this incident today.”

The man found dead today is yet to be formally identified, police said.

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10:52 pm, Friday 25 January, 2008

Source: Central Western Daily

AN 83-year-old Nashdale man died yesterday morning in a tractor accident on a property in Borenore Lane.

The man had lived at Nashdale for many years and was a former orchardist.

He was carrying out work on a Nashdale property on the western side of Borenore Lane around 10am yesterday when the tractor he was driving careered down a steep slope and crashed in a gully.

The man was cutting lucerne in a paddock on top of a hill when police say for unknown reasons he lost control of the tractor.

The man was found near the tractor by a co-worker.

Police have declined to release the name of the man, following a request from his immediate family.

Ambulance, police and the CHC helicopter responded to the accident but the helicopter was later called off.

A WorkCover investigator arrived at the property just before 11.30am.

Police from the Forensic Services Unit at Bathurst spent several hours on the property yesterday trying to determine the cause of the accident.

Police said it was too early to tell if the man had a heart attack or some other medical condition which led to the accident.

According to locals he pulled out his orchard about 20 years ago but remained in the area helping out with the cutting of lucerne.

“He was a very quiet man – it is such a shock,” said orchardist Peter Darley.

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11:54 am, Friday 25 January, 2008

Source: Wimmera News

A WIMMERA labour hire company has defended its safety record, despite being one of two Horsham-based companies to be convicted and fined after pleading guilty to unsafe work practices.

Workco Limited, employer of 500 people and 300 apprentices at more than 50 organisations, was fined $9000 and hay export company Johnson Asahi $25,000. Both companies must each pay costs of $3211.

They both failed to provide a safe work environment and failed to provide a workplace without health risks. Workco manager Dean Luciani said while he would not comment about the specific incident, the company supported any injured party.”I wish to reiterate, Workco is serious about safety practices of our employees,” he said. “We feel it’s important people in the community recognise our sense of responsibility and commitment to all people living and working in western rural Victoria.”

Worksafe Victoria prosecuted the companies following a forklift accident at Johnson Asahi’s hay processing plant in Horsham on September 18, 2006.Bruce Sartori, employed by Workco to work at Johnson Asahi, was driving the forklift unlicensed and not wearing a seatbelt when he hit another industrial machine, causing him cracked ribs and bruising.

WorkSafe solicitor Nandi Segbedzi said Johnson Asahi had failed in many areas of workplace safety, including inadequate barriers for machinery, ensuring staff were qualified and wearing seatbelts and the unsafe stacking of hay bales. Ms Segbedzi said Workco failed to provide to its employees a safe environment in regard to health.

Magistrate Andrew Capell said the two companies’ early guilty plea, clean record and history of being good citizens were taken into account when handing down the punishment. But he said the punishment must also send out a message of general deterrence.

Mr Capell said he also took into account Johnson Asahi’s financial position after their solicitor Ross Ray told the court the company, an employer of 22 people in Horsham and 77 nationally, suffered a loss of $1.4 million last financial year because of the drought.

Mr Capell said he was pleased Johnson Asahi had taken steps to ensure this type of incident didn’t happen again but its procedures at the time of the accident were inadequate. He said although Workco, a labour hire company, had not control of the day-to-day running of a business, it had a responsibility to look after its employees.

“It failed in its duty to Mr Sartori,” he said. “But it’s been in existence for 21 years and has an impeccable record.” Mr Capell said Workco’s risk assessment procedure was not good enough. WorkSafe Victoria’s case against Mr Sartori was adjourned to Horsham Magistrate’s Court on March 26.

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