MARTON Nominees and its director and company secretary William Nash have been fined after a disastrous attempted concrete pour.
Marton Nominees and Nash pleaded guilty to charges laid under the Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Act 1986 relating to the duties of a building occupier and the responsible officer of a company.
The August 2006 incident occurred at a building owned by Marton Nominees in Light Square, Adelaide. The company had decided to build apartments on the roof of the building, and Nash was directing work to fill several gaps with wet concrete.
According to the prosecution, he was a self-styled project manager for the work, despite having no formal qualifications in construction or building work.
Under the weight of a tonne of wet concrete being poured into a stairwell shaft, wooden formwork beneath collapsed under the strain resulting in the concrete and woodwork plunging over four metres to the floor below.
Three workers were put at risk, with one on the floor beneath suffering neck and back injuries as he jumped clear from nearby scaffolding.
According to SafeWork SA, there was little if any adequate hazard identification or risk assessment on the task, few or no tests or calculations to ensure the formwork could bear the load of concrete, no consultation with or advice from a suitably qualified engineer on the safety or methodology of the task, and no adequate measures were taken to ensure the floor below was cleared while the pour was undertaken.
In fining each of the defendants $44,000, Magistrate Ardlie said Nash had been clearly out of his depth, in an industry that is inherently dangerous.