Diane Christine Hilker

Incident description:

On 11 March 2008 a person sustained serious injuries while operating a chaff cutter.

The court acknowledged Diane Christine Hilker leased the incident premises and the chaff cutter involved in the incident to the injured person.

The court found the defendant held obligations under s.28(1) of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 being a person conducting a business or undertaking through contractual lease arrangements which included the chaff cutter.

The incident occurred while the injured person was feeding biscuits of lucerne into the chaff cutter. The glove on her left hand became caught in the rotating teeth of the chaff cutter, pulling her arm into the machine's crushing and cutting mechanism.

The investigation findings presented to the court revealed:

• The defendant failed to supply an adequately guarded machine and was aware that the injured person would use the chaff cutter for the production of chaff.
• The machine was fitted with a reversing lever which the injured person was unable to reach with her right arm as it was situated to her left hand side.
• The chaff cutter was also fitted with a ‘cut-off’ or ’stop’ button, however she was unable to reach the button when she became entangled.

Court result:

The defendant pleaded guilty in the Rockhampton Industrial Magistrates Court on 31 July 2009 to breaching s.24(1) of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995, having failed to meet her workplace health and safety obligations.

Industrial Magistrate Mr Thomas Bradshaw ordered the defendant pay a penalty of $3000 as well as investigation and court costs totalling $1065.40.

In reaching a decision the Industrial Magistrate acknowledged submissions made by both prosecution and defence that a bond was appropriate. The Court indicated that it felt the matter required a monetary penalty. The Industrial Magistrate found the relationship between the defendant and the injured person was not one of worker and employer or that it entailed any direct supervision of the injured person (or the ability to supervise the injured person). He found that it was different from any of the relevant appeal decisions.

It was on the basis that there was no level of control or relationship of supervision or ability to supervise that Industrial Magistrate Bradshaw reduced the fine.

In deciding the penalty imposed Industrial Magistrate Bradshaw also took into account the defendant had not been prosecuted previously for any workplace health and safety breach, cooperated with the investigation and entered an early plea of guilty when ordering no conviction be recorded.

Considerations for prevention:

When working in the rural industry where there is exposure to risks from chaff cutters, 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 control measures associated with the risk of being drawn into the moving parts of machinery, obligation holders should consider fitting an appropriate guarding system to machinery in order to prevent persons from coming in contact with the moving parts during its operation.

Visit the Workplace Health and Safety Queensland website for more information on:

• health and safety information for rural
• rural industry
• Guide to safeguarding common machinery and plant (PDF, 737kB).
• training staff and using control measures to manage risks associated with workplace hazards
• Rural Plant Code of Practice 2004
• Plant Code of Practice 2005
• Risk Management Code of Practice 2007
• Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995.