Company charged over death of fatigued driver

WorkSafe has charged a Keysborough warehousing and logistics company over the death of one of its employees.

WorkSafe has charged Onkar Group and its sole director, Maninder Singh Nagi, under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHS Act) for allegedly recklessly engaging in conduct that placed another person at a workplace in danger of serious injury.

The driver and employee of the company was 12 hours into his shift of delivering baked goods to a variety of locations when his delivery van drifted into the path of an oncoming truck at Kialla West.

It is alleged by WorkSafe investigators that both the company and Nagi failed to reduce the risk of slower reaction times, lapses in attention, or falling asleep by ensuring that the driver received adequate stationary rest breaks and time out of the vehicle while he was doing his drop-offs.

The company also faces three other charges of the Occupational Health and Safety Act for allegedly failing to provide a safe workplace and another three charges for failing to ensure persons other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks.

WorkSafe also alleges:

• The company failed to provide and maintain safe systems of work.
• Failed to provide necessary information, instruction, and training.
• And failed to provide necessary supervision in relation to fatigue management.

It is alleged those breaches were attributable to the failure of the company director, Nagi, to take reasonable care as director, for which he faces a further six total charges of the OHS Act.

The matter is listed for a filing hearing in the Shepparton Magistrates Court on 2 August 2024.

Just recently, WorkSafe inspectors attended and charged another company after their worker fell from pallet racks, landed head first on the concrete floor, and fractured his skull.

On the incident, work health and safety regulator Robyn Pearce said: “This prosecution shows how important it is that employers have safety management systems in place to protect workers while they’re doing their job. Training, safe work procedures, inductions and other practices are important foundations for ensuring workers are safe.”

The company was convicted and fined $70,000 in the Launceston Magistrates Court on 4 July 2024.