Home Hill manufacturing company fined over fatal workplace incident
Date issued: 2010-05-28
Manufacturing company Burdekin Engineering Works Pty Ltd has been fined $50,000 after a worker was killed in a workplace incident.
Burdekin Engineering Works Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in the Townsville Industrial Magistrates Court on 8 October 2009 to breaching section 24(1) of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 (PDF, 766 KB) , having failed to ensure workplace safety.
The Court heard a worker died after sustaining fatal head injuries when the split rim wheel of a haul-out trailer undergoing maintenance exploded off the rim and struck the worker at the company’s Home Hill premises on 29 September 2008.
An investigation by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland revealed the company failed to identify a hazard that was reasonably foreseeable and manage the potential risks associated with split rim wheels.
Industrial Magistrate Peter Smid took into account that the company had cooperated with the investigation, entered an early guilty plea and had not been prosecuted previously for any workplace health and safety breach.
In addition to the fine, he ordered the company to pay $3,435.50 investigation costs and $65.40 court costs.
The prosecution was brought by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, part of the Department of Justice and Attorney-General.
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