A Brocklehurst-based business has been convicted and fined $375,000 after an 18 year old worker was killed while performing electrical diagnostics on a truck cab.
Northern Rivers WHS can confirm KML Auto Electrics Pty Ltd was sentenced in the NSW District Court for failing to ensure as far as reasonably practicable the health and safety of workers.
In this case, 18 year old Darby Paxton who had just left high school and was 10 days into the first year of his apprenticeship (a total of 18 days experience if you count Work Experience from highschool), was killed. The owner of the business, Mr Kurt Lew raised a truck cap of a 2001 Isuzu and did not check for a CTSS (Cab Tilt Stay System). All trucks have some form of CTSS. Without engaging the CTSS properly, nothing more than a rock of the cab is needed to have it collapse.
On the day, the offender left Mr Paxton to finish working on a project on the trucks engine bay while he went to do a roadside job. Putting aside the fact the offender left a first year apprentice to do work completely unsupervised, he also left him to do work in a very dangerous position.
At some point between 0845 and 1215 (the offender had left his apprentice alone for 3.5 hours) Mr Paxton had sadly accidentally bumped the stabaliser arm and the truck cab had come down on him. Having raised and lowered Isuzu cabs, I am confident in saying they don’t come down slowly.
The court heard that Mr Lew (the offender) did not inspect the stay arm to determine if it was fitted with a lock pin, however, he was aware of lock pins as a control measure to guard against the risk. Had the defendant inspected the CTSS, Mr Lew would have identified that it was fitted with a lock pin to be inserted prior to undertaking work beneath the raised cab.
The offender was fined 25% of the maximum penalty of $1,500,000. $375,000 (or $7,653.06 for each year of work it took from its victim and approximately $5,859.38 for each year of life taken from his victim). The offender also has to pay SafeWork's prosecution costs of $32,600.
The offender has a right to appeal the sentence which was handed down on 30 September 2022. Read the court’s judgement.
Workers and businesses are urged to take a zero-tolerance approach to risks of falls and injuries in workplaces. People can do more to stop accidents before they happen with the NSW Government’s free Speak Up Save Lives app.