Clarke Cranes has been convicted of breaching occupational health and safety laws after a jury found the company guilty of failing to ensure plant supplies were safe and without risk. This failure led to a horrific workplace accident at a Box Hill construction site in 2018.
The accident occurred at a multi-storey development in Victoria’s Box Hill when a crane failed due to a missing split pin, causing a tub of concrete weighing several tonnes to plummet to the ground crushing and killing Shaun Burns 48, and leaving John Babich, then 28, permanently in a wheelchair.
County Court Judge Gavan Meredith noted measures were available to Clark Cranes to address the risk, including examining the bolt at the time the crane was received, or installed at the work site, and inserting a new pin if one was missing or replacing it if the pin was faulty.
Clark Cranes was found guilty for failing to take these precautions and was fined $400,000.
CFMEU Victoria said it was a slap in the face for the families and construction workers affected, while noting the CraneSafe green sticker program safety check would have avoided the accident.
“The program is considered an industry standard and critical to the prevention of construction accidents and injuries. The program is endorsed by the Crane Industry Council, WorkSafe and CFMEU.”
Victorian State Secretary of the CFMEU, John Setka said, “we are all at a loss as to why Clark Cranes will not adhere to the safety checks in order to receive a green sticker, with incidents in the past, this ‘roadworthy’ check, which only costs between five and six hundred dollars, is treated as an industry standard, but clearly we need to push for legislation on the green sticker safety inspection program to avoid any future loss of life and injury.”
Adam Olsen, CFMEU Organiser who was on site on that tragic day said, “the fine handed out yesterday is disgusting when you consider not only was there a death, another worker became a paraplegic.
“Over 100 workers on the site that day have all been affected in some way, many were too traumatised to return to work when the site reopened following the investigation, and many have suffered ongoing mental health issues as a workplace fatality is extremely confronting and understandably too much for some to handle.”