Browsing: Fatalities | Page 6

At a retrial, a court has confirmed a company breached safety regulations by failing to ensure enough expert workers were involved in operating a crane at a workplace where a fatality occurred.

A major government employer has been fined $600,000 over a train fatality and injuries that occurred in circumstances where drivers had a restricted view, and that triggered mandatory reviews of safety systems for a high-risk procedure.

• Triple prosecution urged after gas-monitoring incident;
  
• New WHS guide tackles fatigue and outlines duties in NT; and
  
• McGurk gets WHS portfolio in WA.

A senior company executive has been found guilty of recklessness and faces jail, in the latest case involving the deaths of four police officers in a road incident caused by a drug-affected truck driver.

Employers have been urged to identify all powerlines at their workplaces, including around entry and exit points, after a company was convicted and fined over an electrocution. Employers have also been warned about the presence of asbestos in workplace fire doors, following exposure incidents.

A PCBU previously prosecuted over a fatality, and a facilities manager who failed to manage the entrapment hazard posed by a disused stairwell, where a visitor died, have been fined for WHS contraventions in Queensland.

The passage of an amended industrial manslaughter Bill, through South Australia's Parliament, has been described as a "game-changer" for WHS compliance. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth jurisdiction's WHS Act is being amended to empower those directly affected by workplace safety incidents to provide advice to regulators.

At the 23rd World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, which kicked off in Sydney today, the International Labour Organisation will announce a new strategy to accelerate health and safety progress. The ILO warns that work-related accidents and diseases are causing the deaths of nearly three million workers each year.

Company executives must ensure systems are in place to deal with non-compliance with safety requirements and those systems are properly monitored, a regulator has stressed after an employer was handed a record recklessness fine relating to the deaths of four police officers.

A PCBU that was fined $250,000, in relation to the drowning deaths of two overseas students, has failed to reduce its penalty by claiming it was blamed for the omissions of others. A judge stressed that WHS duties are not transferrable and the legislation "demands a proactive approach".