Fall from height costs Drouin company $12,500

06 June 2008

Failing to ensure a truck driver used a fall prevention harness has resulted in a conviction and $12,500 fine for West Gippsland company, Evison Grain.

Morwell County Court Judge, Damian Murphy, sentenced the company today.

Truck driver Murray Reid was employed by Evison Grain when he had a heart

attack while on top of a grain tanker on 25 November 2005.

He fell 3.5 meters from the walkway on top of the truck to the ground and died at the scene.

The court was told that while there was a safety harness at the company’s Drouin depot, it was not provided to Mr Reid and he had not been instructed to wear it.

It was argued,and the court accepted, that notwithstanding the heart attack, Mr Reid would not have fallen to the ground had he been wearing the harness.  

The director of WorkSafe’s Manufacturing Logistics and Agriculture program, Trevor

Martin, said the offence related to the safety failing, not the medical outcome.

“Preventing falls from height is a primary duty in any business. When looking at ensuring safety, it is important to consider what could happen and how it could practicably be prevented. 

“Employers need to take an active and imaginative approach to potential dangers and ensuring their employees are not exposed to risk."

“Falls are responsible for a number of fatalities and many serious injuries each year,

particularly in the road transport industry involving drivers.”

WorkSafe has produced a number of publications targeting fall prevention. They can 

be found in the ‘publications’ section of WorkSafe’s website  www.worksafe.vic.gov.au,

or by calling the Advisory Service on 1800 136 089.

They include:

• Prevention of Falls – Trucks, 
• Prevention of Falls in the Transport of Livestock,      
• Transport of waste & recyclables, Prevention of falls, 
• Prevention of falls in the transport of steel,            
• Car carrying vehicles - preventing falls.   

WorkSafe funds a free three-hour independent safety consultancy for small and medium sized businesses. Contact WorkSafe, Vecci, AI Group or the Victorian Farmers Federation for details).

The charge:

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

Section 21.  Duties of employers to employees

(1) An employer must, so far as is 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: —

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