Prosecution Details

Being an employer, failed so far as was practicable, to provide and maintain a working environment in which its employees were not exposed to a hazard, and by that contravention, caused serious harm to an employee contrary to sections 19(1) and 19A(2) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984 (WA).

The Offender, trading as WA Premix, manufactures concrete for commercial and domestic purposes. It has batching plants in Neerabup, Bibra Lake, Mandurah and Bayswater and employs approximately 50 employees across all four batching plants.

During operation, each of the four batching plants is staffed by a batcher, a yards-man, and truck drivers that would enter and leave each of the sites. Trucks entering a site after delivering concrete would wash out the agitator bowl to remove any remaining waste product. The waste product was drained out of the agitator bowl into a waste pit.  Each of the four batching plants have two waste pits that are side by side. One would be in use while the other was drained and emptied.

The waste pits are made from steel and concrete. They are four walled boxes, 3m wide by 1.5m high. The front wall is removeable and is called the waste pit gate. The waste pit gates are made of steel and weigh approximately 2 tonnes. At the relevant time the waste pit gates were held in place by four wedge pins. After the waste pit was drained a front-end loader and a 3-legged lifting chain were used to lift the waste pit gate so that the contents could be removed. The gate was removed by raising the bucket of the front-end loader to be level with the top of the gate. One end of the lifting chain was attached to the bucket of the front-end loader and the other two attached to lugs on the waste pit gate. The bucket of the front-end loader would then be raised to apply load to the chain, the wedge pins were removed and the waste pit gate lifted away and moved to the side of the waste pit. Once the wedge pins were removed the waste pit gate was unable to be retained in place. The waste pits were ordinarily emptied weekly. The task was considered a two-person task and was carried out by the batcher and yards-man. However, if there was no-one available to assist one person only would complete the task.

The waste pit gates at the Offender’s Bayswater batching plant, built in 2019, were different and featured a ‘C channel’ that the waste pit gate slid behind before the wedge pins were put in place. The ‘C channel’ acted as a supporting mechanism that the held the gate in place when the wedge pins were removed. The ‘C channel' was installed by the Offender’s maintenance department when the Bayswater batching plant was built.

In early 2020 the Neerabup batching plant was upgraded to include waste pits. The waste pit gates installed at the Neerabup batching plant were manufactured and installed by the Offender’s maintenance department but did not include the ‘C channel’. The waste pit gates at the Offender’s Bibra Lake and Mandurah batching plants did not include the ‘C channel’ and also relied on the wedge pins to hold the waste pit gate in place.

The victim was employed by the Offender as a truck driver, initially based at the Neerabup site but later at the Bayswater site. On occasion he was tasked to work at the Neerabup site during busy periods and his duties included emptying the waste pits.

On 17 December 2020 the victim was working at the Neerabup site in the early morning and was due to return to the Bayswater site later in the morning. The victim commenced the task of emptying a waste pit. The victim moved the front-end loader into position and knocked out 3 of the 4 wedge pins. The victim could not locate the lifting chain in its usual position. Without securing the waste pit gate to the front-end loader the victim removed the fourth wedge pin. The wase pit gate fell forward in the direction of the victim, hitting him in the chest and leg, and pushing him to the ground. The victim was conveyed to hospital by ambulance.

The victim hit his head on the ground requiring staples. He also sustained serious crush fractures to his lower left leg resulting in amputation of the left leg below the knee.

It was reasonably practicable for the Offender to have used engineering controls such as the ‘C channel’ to have secured the waste pit gate at the Neerabup and other sites. After the incident blocks were installed on the front wall of the waste pit to secure the waste pit gate when the wedge pins were removed. Forklift lifting pockets were also introduced to avoid the need to use lifting chains. After the incident changes were made to the Safe Work Procedure (SWP) for the task of emptying the waste pits including that it was a two-person job. After the incident formal training was provided to relevant workers in relation to the task and the updated SWP.

The offender plead guilty and was convicted on 6 September 2024.    Sentencing occurred on 29 May 2025 where the Magistrate issued a fine of $580,000 and ordered costs of $6180.20