Alleged safety breaches lead to County Court

21 January 2008

A South Gippsland company has been committed to stand trial in the County Court on workplace health and safety charges. 

We Fix M Pty Ltd (trading as Inverloch Motor Body Works) reserved its plea before Magistrate  Alsop at theLatrobe Valley Magistrate’s Court on 8 January.

A man died at the company’s premises in Bear St Inverloch on 17 January last year when a hoist holding a tandem trailer collapsed.

The trailer fell on the man, a customer, who had taken the trailer in for repairs the day before.

Although no one saw the incident, people at the scene said they saw the man with his hands near the rear axle of the trailer just before it fell.

A case conference has been scheduled for 26 May at the Latrobe Valley County Court, Morwell.

WorkSafe’s publication ‘Automotive workshop safety’ is available online at www.worksafe.vic.gov.,au or by calling the WorkSafe Advisory Service on 1800 156 089.

The charges:

Sections 21 (1) and (2) (a) and (b) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004

Section 21 Duties of employers to employees

(1)  an employer must, so far as reasonably practicable, provide and maintain for employees of the employer, a working environment that is safe and without risks to health.

(2)  Without limiting sub-section (1), an employer contravenes that sub-section if the employer fails to do any of the following:

(a) provide or maintain plant or systems of work that are, so far as is reasonably practicable,  safe and without risks to health

(b) make arrangements for ensuring, so far as is reasonably practicable, safety and the absence of risks to health in connection with the use, handling, storage or transport of plant or substances.

Section 23 Duties of employers to other persons

(1)   An employer must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons other than employees of the employer are not exposed to risk to their health or safety arising from the conduct of the undertaking of the employer.