Star Freightlines fined $20,000 for forklift injury

• General News
• 17th July 2013

Canning Vale company Star Freightlines has been fined $20,000 over an incident in which an employee was injured by a reversing forklift.

The company transports freight from Canning Vale to its depot in Karratha where it employs around 30 people.

In February 2011, the Karratha Depot Manager and two delivery drivers were working at the depot.

The two delivery drivers were talking about five metres from one of their trucks when the Depot Manager drove a forklift from a shed to the rear of the truck.

The Depot Manager then reversed the forklift at high speed toward the two drivers. The driver facing the forklift called out a warning to the manager and tried to pull the other driver out of the way, but the forklift was travelling too quickly to stop in time and struck the driver.

It knocked him face-down to the ground, then stopped momentarily, then continued and ran over the driver’s left leg. The driver suffered a dislocated patella and significant abrasions and bruising.

At the time of the incident the company did not have a policy requiring the horn of the forklift to be sounded before reversing. In fact it had NO POLICY for the operation of forklifts in general.

It also had NO policy on the speed at which forklifts were to be driven, or a requirement for operators to conduct regular pre-start checks.

The forklift’s reversing alarm had not been working properly for several weeks and, although some maintenance work had been performed two weeks before this incident, the reversing alarm had not been repaired.

The injured driver was wearing black clothing at the time of the incident, and Star Freightlines did not supply workers with hi-vis clothing or have a policy requiring hi-vis clothing to be worn.

There were no formal policies requiring exclusion zones or otherwise ensuring the separation of pedestrians and forklifts.

The Depot Manager had received little handover from his predecessor and little training when he commenced in the position. He did not hold the appropriate High Risk Work Licence required to operate the forklift.

WorkSafe WA Commissioner Lex McCulloch expressed his disappointment that there were still workplaces operating with such an apparent lack of safe work procedures.

“This employer has provided very little in the way of instruction, training or formal policies for safe systems of work at this workplace, and it is now suffering the consequences,” Mr McCulloch said.

“This workplace appears to have been an accident waiting to happen, and it is fortunate that this incident did not result in more serious injuries.

“Since this incident, the employer has repaired the reversing alarm on the forklift, and the Depot Manager has obtained the appropriate licence required to operate the forklift, but it took an injury to a worker to make it happen.

“Operating forklifts requires a High Risk Work Licence for a good reason, and it is of great concern that workers are still operating forklifts without having been adequately trained to perform the work safely and competently.

“I trust this prosecution has also encouraged the employer to get some formal policies into place for traffic control and the protection of workers at the Karratha Depot.” The Worksafe chief said.