Nick's Refrigeration (Gold Coast) Pty Ltd
Incident description:
A 4 year old boy placed his hand into an air conditioning fan blade on a commercial air conditioning unit located beside a sporting venue.
The investigation found the defendant had removed a non-performing fan and motor assembly on the commercial air conditioning unit and replaced it with a higher performing component. The defendant failed to ensure the new fan blades were guarded and access to the moving fan blade could not occur.
Court result:
The defendant pleaded guilty and was fined $40 000. No conviction recorded.
Considerations for prevention:
(Commentary under this heading may be additional to material before the court.)When working in the building and construction industry where there is exposure to risks from plant, obligation holders should apply a risk management approach to ensure the selection of suitable control measures.
Risk management involves evaluating the consequences and likelihood of harm that may result from the hazard, deciding on and implementing control measures to prevent or minimise the level of the risk from the hazard and monitoring the effectiveness of the control measures to ensure they remain working correctly.
When deciding on and implementing appropriate control measures associated with plant, obligation holders should ensure that such tasks are undertaken by suitably qualified and experienced workers. When maintaining and replacing parts on guarded machinery including commercial air conditioning units, obligation holders must ensure that the manufacturers instructions and specification are followed to ensure that guards used to prevent workers or others accessing the moving blades, remain in place.
Visit the Workplace Health and Safety Queensland website for more information on:
- health safety information for construction
- guide to safe guarding common machinery and plant
- implementing controls or evaluating or monitoring them
- conducting risk assessments
- Plant Code of Practice 2005
- Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995
- what penalties apply under the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995
|
Industry:
|
Building and construction
|
|---|---|
|
ANZSIC code:
|
4113 |
|
Defendant:
|
Nick's Refrigeration (Gold Coast) Pty Ltd
|
|
Defendant ACN:
|
077 769 754
|
|
Date of offence:
|
6 May 2007
|
|
Location of offence:
|
Gold Coast
|
|
Injury:
|
Amputation of fingers from right hand
|
|
Circumstance of aggravation:
|
Grievous bodily harm
|
|
Court:
|
Southport Industrial Magistrates Court
|
|
Magistrate:
|
Mr Terry Duroux
|
|
Legislation:
|
s.28(1) Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995
|
|
Plea:
|
Guilty
|
|
Decision date:
|
12 September 2008
|
|
Penalty:
|
$40 000
|
|
Maximum fine available:
|
$375 000
|
|
Investigation costs:
|
$1200.00
|
|
Professional and legal costs:
|
$750.00
|
|
Court costs:
|
$66.40
|
|
In default period to pay:
|
Referred to SPER, in default levy and distress
|
|
Conviction recorded:
|
No
|
|
CIS event no.:
|
63209
|
Other languages