Excavator Driver Fined $55,000 for Unsafe Work Practices

Media release – Robyn Pearce, Work Health and Safety Regulator, WorkSafe Tasmania, 6 May 2024

Excavator driver fined $55,000 for unsafe work practices

·         Mr Mark Grima has been convicted and fined after his unsafe manner of working severely injured a worker from another business at a worksite in northern Tasmania in November 2020.

·         The Magistrate found that Mr Grima, an excavator operator, had commenced operating his excavator while another worker was present in the trench. Mr Grima did not ensure the excavator was in the correct operating mode before starting the machine and did not ensure a there was an exclusion zone with no persons in it before operating the machine. As a result, a worker suffered severe crush injuries to his pelvis when he was pinned against the side of the trench by the excavator bucket

·         Mr Grima was fined $55,000 in the Launceston Magistrates Court on Wednesday, 1 May 2024.

·         In sentencing, the Magistrate found that the offence was a significant departure from safe practice. Safety at work sites is an important factor; they are especially fraught with danger  if people and machinery are working in the same area.

·         The Magistrate indicated that it was significantly foreseeable that there was a risk of a crush injury occurring and compliance with the rules would have eliminated the risk.

·         Speaking after the decision, the Work Health and Safety Regulator Robyn Pearce said: ‘This incident shows how important it is to operate mobile plant and equipment safely around workers.

·         ‘WorkSafe Tasmania Inspectors have seen too many incidents lately involving mobile plant operators not taking care when operating their equipment around workers, and not maintaining safe exclusion zones.

·         ‘Operators must not operate mobile plant in a way that puts other workers at risk. They must ensure workers are not near machinery when it is being operated.

·         ‘Workers in the vicinity of mobile plant must also take care and not get distracted around mobile plant.

·         ‘Employers or managers who manage plant operators are also responsible for ensuring the mobile plant is operated safely and by competent workers.