Kimberley Quarry Pty Ltd was fined $167,000 after a screening machine operator fell more than three metres while changing heavy screens and sustained multiple injuries.
Quarrying services company Kimberley Quarry Pty Ltd was today fined $167,000 after a screening machine operator fell more than three metres while changing heavy screens and sustained multiple injuries, including internal bleeding, ligament damage and a spinal fracture.
Kimberley Quarry pleaded guilty in the Geraldton Magistrates Court to two offences under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA)-exposing workers to a risk of death, injury or harm to health and failing to preserve the site of a notifiable incident.
In June 2022, a screening machine operator was supervising a routine task on a horizontal screener with different screens that enable quarries to make rock products of varying sizes, at the Kimberley Quarry-operated Chapman Valley Quarry about 27 kilometres north-east of Geraldton in WA's Mid West.
The screening machine operator and a less experienced colleague were working on the top deck of the horizontal screener, removing wire screen panels weighing between 15 and 30 kilograms each before throwing them on the ground below. The two employees were carrying out the frequently assigned job at a height of about 3.18m without either edge protection or a fall restraint system in place.
When the screening machine operator threw one of the screens from the horizontal screener, the panel's wire hooks caught on their jumper and pulled them off the screener. Their fall resulted in internal bleeding, ligament damage, a sprained wrist and elbow, a forearm laceration and several back injuries, the most severe of which was a fractured L2 vertebra. They spent about 12 weeks in a brace and returned to work about five months after the event.
In addition to exposing workers to a risk of death, injury, or harm to health, Kimberley Quarry failed to preserve the site of a notifiable incident. After emergency services personnel transported the injured person by ambulance to Geraldton Regional Hospital and before a WorkSafe inspector arrived at Chapman Valley Quarry, Kimberley Quarry's site supervisor directed other employees to complete the task of changing the horizontal screener's screens.
At the time of the event, Kimberley Quarry had implemented a safe work procedure for the changing of the horizontal screener's screens. However, while the policy identified hazards and relevant competencies-some of them unique to the screener's top deck-and did not condone throwing removed items to the ground below, it neither addressed the danger of falling from height nor provided detailed information as to how to remove/change panels, where workers should position themselves and when to use cranes.
Following the incident, Kimberley Quarry made improvements to its safe work procedure for the changing of the screens, including adding references to the appropriate certifications/licences to the list of competencies, expressly forbidding climbing onto the screener's deck and explicitly prohibiting throwing panels off the machine.
Furthermore, Kimberley Quarry updated its safe work procedure for working at heights to include a directive that employees must submit completed permits to supervisors before either using an elevated work platform or commencing jobs in which physical barriers cannot eliminate the risk of falls greater than 2 m.
WorkSafe Commissioner Sally North said the incident highlighted the importance of developing thorough safe work procedures in consultation with workers, as well as ensuring workers and managers understand the legal requirements to preserve the site of a notifiable incident such as a serious injury.
"Incomplete safe work procedures, such as those that don't address the life-threatening risks associated with working at heights, are inadequate," Ms North said.
