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14 June 2013
ARTIO NSW INFORMATION CIRCULAR 14/2013
WA Employer Fined for High Visibility Clothing and Forklift Breaches
The following article has been reproduced verbatim from ‘OHS Alert’
A Western Australian employer had been fined $20,000 for failing to maintain a safe work environment, after a worker in black clothing was run over by a forklift being reversed by an unlicensed manager.
Massena Pty Ltd, trading as Star Freightlines, pleaded guilty to breaching the State OSH Act in the Perth Magistrates Court on Monday.
The Court heard the worker and a co-worker were standing next to a truck at a Massena depot in February 2011 when the depot manager reversed the forklift towards them at high speed.
The co-worker called out a warning to the manager and tried to pull the worker out of the way, but the forklift struck the worker, knocking him to the ground and running over his left leg.
He suffered a dislocated patella and significant abrasions and bruising.
The Court found the employer did not have policies requiring exclusion zones or other methods to separate pedestrians and forklifts, and did not supply workers with hi-vis clothing or require such clothing to be worn.
Massena also lacked policies requiring forklift operators to drive at safe speeds, sound horns before reversing or conduct regular pre-start checks.
The forklift involved in the incident had a defective reversing alarm, and the problem was not addressed by maintenance work performed on the vehicle two weeks prior to the incident, the Court found.
Further, the depot manager did not have the appropriate high-risk licence required to operate the forklift, and had received little training when he was engaged as the manager.
"This employer has provided very little in the way of instruction, training or formal policies for safe systems of work at this workplace, and it is now suffering the consequences," WorkSafe WA Commissioner Lex McCulloch said.
"This workplace appears to have been an accident waiting to happen."