Personal Injury Accidents

Highest coal mining fines in Queensland after truck incident; WA baling company fined $120K over leg amputation; and WA stevedoring company fined for permanent leg injuries.

Highest coal mining fines in Queensland after truck incident

A coal mining incident has seen a mine-owner, a contractor and a worker fined the highest court-ordered penalties to date under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act.

Penalties imposed on all parties came to a total of $83,400, plus $27,000 in investigation costs.

In 2006 a coal mine worker employed by a contractor, CQE Hire Pty Ltd, suffered burns to 65 per cent of his body when the water truck he was driving ran down a surface ramp, overturned and burst into flames.

Investigations by the Queensland Mines Inspectorate found the truck had faulty and poorly maintained brakes.

The Industrial Magistrates Court fined the contractor $44,000 and ordered it to pay $18,000 in investigation costs. The mechanic, for the water truck, who was also employed by CQE, was fined $4400.

In an earlier decision, the mine owner, BMA Coal Operations, was fined $35,000 for failing to meet its obligations under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act, and in investigation costs.

WA baling company fined $120K over leg amputation

A Western Australian hay baling company has been fined after a worker's lower leg was torn off in a hay press machine.

In 2004, the employee of Elders Hycube Pty Ltd and another employee were the only two people left at the factory when the incident occurred. The two workers were processing bales of hay using the hay press when they found the machine was jammed.

The workers turned off the machine and unsuccessfully tried to release the jammed bale of hay.

They devised a plan to un-jam the machine, and as the worker was tying some rope around the jammed bale, the other employee started the machine. The conveyor the worker was standing on began to move, which caused him to overbalance. The worker's right foot was trapped and amputated by the machine.

After the incident, the employer installed a metal box over the machine's control panel, with padlocks for each worker so that no one else could access the controls and turn a machine on if someone else had turned it off.

The Perth Magistrates Court fined the employer $120,000 for failing to provide a safe workplace.

The employer had previously been fined in 2003 over the death of an employee who was also caught in the moving parts of the hay baling machine at the same factory.

WA stevedoring company fined for permanent leg injuries

A stevedoring and cargo handling company has been fined after one of its workers suffered serious and permanent injuries.

In 2004, three employees of P & O Ports were dismantling a large bar that was used to unload lengths of railway, which was left on a wharf after a ship had been unloaded. The bar weighed more than two tonnes and had rope slings and removable plates on each end.

The bar was elevated on two stacks of wooden gluts. As one of the workers secured the rope slings, the bar toppled and fell onto his legs. Another worker who was nearby used a forklift to lift the bar from his legs.

The worker suffered serious fractures and crush injuries to both his legs and was left with a substantial permanent disability.

The Perth Magistrates Court heard that none of the three workers had performed the task before, nor were they given any instruction on how to perform the task or warned of the risks involved.

The employer was fined $40,000 for failing to provide a safe workplace.