Details of successful prosecution against E173165

Incident description

The defendant company held duties under s.19(1) of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 being a person conducting a business of camper trailer manufacturing.

Court result

The defendant pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on 16 July 2015 to breaching s.32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, having failed to meet its work health and safety duties when a young worker was killed undertaking manufacturing activities. The defendant company was sentenced on 16 June 2016 when Magistrate Barbara Tynan fined it $90 000 and ordered professional and court costs totaling $2583.70. No conviction was recorded.

The complainant successfully appealed on the ground that the sentence was manifestly inadequate.

The appeal decision can be accessed via the following link: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/qld/QDC/2017/56.html.

Considerations for prevention

(commentary under this heading is not part of the court's decision)

When working in the manufacturing industry where there is exposure to risks from gas struts overextending and failing, duty holders should apply a risk management approach to ensure the selection of suitable control measures.

Risk management involves identifying the hazards, evaluating the consequences and likelihood of harm that may result from the hazard, deciding and implementing control measures to prevent or minimise the level of the risk from the hazard and monitoring the effectiveness of the control measures to ensure they remain working correctly.

When deciding and implementing control measures associated with the risk of serious injury or death, obligation holders should consider:

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011
• How to manage work health and safety risks code of practice 2021 (PDF, 0.65 MB)

Details