$100K fine follows tower crane incident that caused hospital roof collapse
A crane company, now in liquidation, engaged to provide tower crane operators, dogmen and crane-related equipment to assist with Warringal Private Hospital’s redevelopment, was sentenced ex parte on 5 August in the Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court. The company was sentenced after being found guilty of a single charge of failing to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that persons other than employees were not exposed to risks to their health and safety.
The company was fined $100,000 — and ordered to pay $4347 in costs — over an incident that occurred in July 2023. Workers were using a tower crane to lift a load comprising two pallets of plasterboard, each weighing nearly one tonne, over the hospital’s Sutherland Ward. The top pallet slid and fell onto the roof below as the load was being lowered onto a landing platform, damaging a consultation room and reception lounge and causing sections of the roof to collapse.
No persons were injured as a result of the incident, though there was a patient in the room. It was reasonably practicable, the court found, for the company to reduce the risk by implementing a system of work that required each pallet to be lifted separately, or if they were to be lifted together, to be restrained by chocking, wrapping, strapping or banding the pallets, WorkSafe Victoria, the state’s WHS regulator, said.
“Properly securing loads when using heavy machinery like cranes is a crucial step in preventing serious incidents like this which could have had a much worse outcome,” WorkSafe Victoria Chief Health and Safety Officer Sam Jenkin said. “Adhering to safe systems of work is a fundamental obligation for all employers to keep both workers and the general public safe during construction activities.”
The principal contractor on the site has also been charged in relation to the incident and will next appear at Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on 3 September.
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