08:46 pm, Friday 30 April, 2010

A golf club in Leichhardt has been fined $44,000 by the Ipswich Industrial Magistrates Court after a part of a worker’s right foot was severed while cutting grass.

The Club pleaded guilty on February 8 to failing to ensure workplace safety under section 24 (1) of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995.

Industrial Magistrate Matthew McLaughlin imposed a $44,000 fine. He also ordered the club to pay $1095.18 investigation costs and $71 court costs.

The Court was told the worker was driving a ride-on mower on the Leichhardt grounds on 30 January 2009.

He was retrieving gold balls from the fairway when his right foot touched the mower blades.

Three of the his toes and part of his foot were amputated due to the incident.

The Workplace Health and Safety Queensland investigation reveals that the club had not set up a OHS system for identifying and tracking faulty plant, nor had a risk assessment of the job been conducted. The club also failed to provide the worker any formal safety training.

The investigation also reveals that the mower had a defective solenoid (which cuts off power when the driver leaves the seat) and had no chute guard.

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09:26 pm, Thursday 15 April, 2010

The coroner has the authority to determine whether the death of a man in Sydney’s west on Wednesday because of herbicide exposure, emergency authorities say.

Emergency crews were called to a Horsley Park house around 8:00am after a gardener collapsed and died.

The 56-year-old was spraying weeds with herbicides just before he collapsed. Fire and police authorities said they cannot immediately find out if he died because of the chemicals or heart attack.

According to Police Superintendent Peter Lennon, 21 other people were contaminated with the chemicals when they attempted to resuscitate the gardener.

“Three were so serious they had to be taken to a nearby hospital. They’ve since been assessed and been released,” he said.

WorkCover NSW is looking into the incident.

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08:16 pm, Wednesday 14 April, 2010

A gardener has been killed after being exposed to chemical at a western Sydney house earlier today.

According to firefighters, the 56-year-old man fell to the ground and when it into cardiac arrest at a house at Horsley park around 8:30am. He was spraying weeds with herbicide just before he collapsed.

Three people who were at the scene tried to revive him. The three were later taken to Liverpool hospital for possible chemical exposure.

Twenty-one others were decontaminated as a precaution.

Fire Brigade Superintendent Ian Krimmer said they cannot find out immediately if the chemical spray was the cause of the death of the gardener.

“At this stage the cause of death is yet to be determined,” he said

“We are aware he was spraying a herbicide, now whether or not he was spraying the herbicide and his death is linked to that, that will be up to the Coroner to determine.”

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