$1.1m fine for waste management company largest under federal WHS laws

Inadequate training has been identified as the cause of a fatal truck collision in 2014, which claimed the lives of two motorists.

Cleanaway Operations was sentenced in the South Australian Supreme Court on 28 May after Chief Justice Chris Kourakis determined there was a breach of federal work safety laws following a 10-year court battle.

The crash between a loaded Cleanaway vacuum truck and three cars at the Cross Road intersection on Adelaide’s South-Eastern Freeway took the lives of two drivers and seriously injured a third, as well as the truck driver.

According to Comcare CEO Colin Radford, “This was the driver’s first week in the job, and he was only trained on relatively flat roads in a truck with an automatic transmission. On the day of the collision, he was driving a manual heavy vehicle for the first time and had to navigate the steep descents of the Adelaide Hills.”

Legal action was commenced by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, which filed charges against Cleanaway Operations in August 2016 following a Comcare investigation. Inadequate driver training and supervision deficiencies thus exposed the driver and other motorists to a higher risk of death or injury.

Radford said: “The obvious safeguard was for Cleanaway to have enforced a system of work that ensured the driver was supervised until he was experienced in operating a manual heavy vehicle in these conditions.”

“The company’s failures had devastating consequences.”

The Comcare CEO also explained the lengthy process as being due to Cleanaway fighting the charges every step of the way. He noted, however, that as a self-insured licensee in the Comcare scheme, they are maintaining a close eye on the organisation through inspections and improvement notices.

“Unfortunately, there have been five workplace fatalities at Cleanaway in the last two years. This needs to be the signal that they need to lift their game. They need to get serious about health and safety,” Radford said.

The two charges were identified as Category 2 offences under the Work Health and Safety Act.

Radford said: “This record, $1.1 million fine, should send a clear message to any company that thinks it can cut corners on workplace health and safety. You will be prosecuted, and you will be held to account.”

“No profit, no productivity gain is worth the cost of a human life.”

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