After a prosecution appeal, a Dandenong South company has received a conviction and a stiffer fine over its second serious workplace injury involving forklifts in two years.
Minus 1 Refrigerated Transport Pty Ltd had been initially fined $20,000 without conviction at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court last year for failing to provide or maintain a safe system of work.
On appeal, the Victorian County Court imposed a conviction and a $50,000 fine on 28 February.
Minus 1 was ordered to pay $4575 in costs.
In June 2023, a forklift unloading a van in the company’s driveway reversed into a worker walking in the same direction.
The worker’s right leg was dragged under the forklift and then run over again when the forklift was driven forward.
The worker suffered partial de-gloving to his calf, a fractured ankle and fractured tibia.
According to WorkSafe, the driveway area was not a designated loading and unloading zone, but the practice had occurred there previously.
It submitted that it was reasonably practicable for Minus 1 Refrigerated Transport to implement a three-metre exclusion zone between pedestrians and forklifts, and to ensure that vehicle loading and unloading only occurred in designated areas.
The court heard the company was previously fined $20,000 without conviction over a similar incident, when a truck driver suffered broken ribs and fractured vertebrae after being struck by a reversing forklift in 2022.
WorkSafe health and safety executive director Sam Jenkin said there were no excuses for failing to adequately separate forklifts and pedestrians.
“Our data shows that on average more than one worker every week is seriously injured in incidents involving forklifts, which is simply unacceptable when the ways to control the risk are easily adopted and relatively low cost,” Mr Jenkin said.
“It is incredibly disappointing that a second person has been injured due to this company’s failure to implement basic safety measures to keep pedestrians out of harm’s way.”
