A stone benchtop company in Campbellfield has been convicted and fined $325,000 after a worker was crushed and killed by stone slabs weighing more than six tonnes in total.
Best Benchtop and Stone Pty Ltd was sentenced today in the County Court after previously pleading guilty to two charges of failing to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that its workplace was safe and without risks to health.
In February 2020 the court heard, the director of Best Benchtop and a worker assisting the company were unloading a shipping container which contained seven packs of 15 slabs, with each slab weighing 220kg.
The worker was inside the shipping container to separate each slab and attach a clamp, which was fitted to a lifting attachment on a forklift. The director was using the forklift to move individual slabs out of the container.
WorkSafe said that during this process, the director heard the worker call out for him. He found the worker pinned to the container wall by about 30 fallen slabs.
Workers and emergency services were unable to shift the slabs and the worker died at the scene.
The court found that it was reasonably practicable for Best Benchtop to reduce the risk of slabs falling by moving complete packs using either a mobile crane or forklift with a container mast, fitted with stone handling attachments, instead of moving them individually.
It also found that it was reasonably practicable for the company to have used temporary restraints such as support frames, chains and straps to prevent any unintended movement of slabs during the unloading process.
WorkSafe executive director of health and safety Narelle Beer said the fatal consequences of failing to implement risk control measures when unpacking containers had been witnessed too many times before.
“This is the second company we’ve prosecuted just this week where a worker was fatally crushed by stone slabs while unpacking a shipping container load,” she said.
“We don’t want to see any more families endure the pain of losing a loved one because of incidents that could have easily been prevented if employers had taken seriously their responsibility to do everything reasonably possible to keep their workers safe.”
