Director and company fined $1.43m after fatal fatigue-related crash

A $1.43 million fine was issued to a warehousing and logistics company in Keysborough, Melbourne, and its director, following the on-the-job death of one of its delivery drivers in a fatigue-related crash.

On Monday (22 September), in Wangaratta County Court, Onkar Group (trading as Bakeology) and its 48-year-old director, Maninder Singh Nagi, were sentenced on five charges under Victoria’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.

In August 2022, the 27-year-old delivery driver was 12 hours into an overnight shift, delivering baked goods to Albury and other locations in northern Victoria, when his van drifted into the wrong lane and collided with an oncoming truck at Kialla West.

The delivery driver died at the scene; however, the truck driver walked away unharmed.

WorkSafe Victoria (WorkSafe) chief health and safety officer Sam Jenkin (pictured) said: “Driver fatigue puts workers and the general public at serious risk, and the consequences can be even more devastating when vehicles collide with other motorists or dwellings.”

Onkar Group was charged and fined $1.1 million for “recklessly placing a person at a workplace in danger of serious injury” and an additional $250,000 for “failing to provide a workplace that was safe and without risks to health and failing to ensure people other than employees weren’t exposed to risks to their health or safety”, WorkSafe said.

The director, Nagi, was charged and fined a total of $80,000 for “being an officer of a company that failed to provide a workplace that was safe and without risks to health and failed to ensure people other than employees weren’t exposed to risks to their health or safety, contraventions that were solely attributable to his failure to take reasonable care”, the regulator reported.

Based on its investigation, “prior to the incident, the driver had completed the same 796-kilometre delivery run for 17 consecutive nights, most including shifts exceeding 12 hours, without adequate breaks of time to rest and recover between shifts”.

The regulator deemed it reasonably practicable that the company and director ensured that the driver did not work for more than 12 hours in a day in a 24-hour period without a minimum break of seven uninterrupted hours of rest time out of a vehicle.

It also said that companies and directors are mandated to provide information to their drivers about the causes, signs, symptoms, and identification of fatigue, together with fatigue prevention training.

“This incident is a tragic example that shows how setting realistic workloads and safe policies can be the difference between a worker going home at the end of the day or tragically losing their life,” Jenkin said.

The court issued an adverse publicity order to the company, requiring it to publicise the offence, its consequences, and the penalty imposed in an industry publication, it said.

To reduce the risk of fatigue, the regulator recommended that employers:

• Set realistic workloads and eliminate or reduce the need to work extended hours or overtime.

• Schedule an adequate number of workers and other resources to do the job to avoid placing excessive demands on staff.

• Appropriately schedule leave and other staff commitments such as training and ensure there is a process for managing unplanned absences.

• Develop policies and procedures to identify, prevent, and manage fatigue and ensure they are implemented and promoted.

• The policy should include maximum daily work hours, maximum average weekly hours, and consider time of day and work-related travel.

• Control overtime, shift-swapping, and on-call duties.

• Provide adequate breaks between shifts to allow employees enough recovery time (including travel, family time, leisure and socialising and exercise time).

• Enable staff to speak up if they are feeling fatigued and unable to work without risk.