A Sydney scaffolding firm has been fined thousands and thousands of {dollars} over the worksite accident which claimed the lifetime of a younger apprentice tradie.
In April 2019, newly 18-year-old Christopher Cassaniti was working as an apprentice tradie at a constructing web site in Macquarie Park when catastrophe struck.
The web site’s perimeter scaffolding gave approach and collapsed on Mr Cassaniti, who was working instantly beneath.
He was trapped beneath the rubble for 20 minutes earlier than he handed away.
Mr Cassaniti’s work colleague, Khaled Wehbe, was additionally trapped within the rubble and suffered accidents.
In July this yr, the corporate accountable for the construction, Synergy Scaffolding Services Pty Ltd, pleaded responsible to a Category 1 offence underneath NSW’s office security legal guidelines.
Fair Trading Minister Eleni Petinos stated the proceedings have been the primary of their variety for ProtectedWork NSW since main amendments have been made to strengthen work well being security legal guidelines.
“No family should ever have to experience the tragedy of losing a loved one through an incident at work, as the Cassinitis did,” Ms Petinos stated.
“This is a reminder that our work, health and safety laws are important and must be upheld by all operators.”
On Friday, NSW District Court Judge Andrew Scotting discovered the employees at Synergy have been put in “significant peril” with the collapse of the construction consequential of a “culmination of events”.
The court docket heard the scaffolding was carrying a load of practically 18 tonnes, previous its most capability.
It additionally heard that between March that yr and the day of its collapse, the scaffolding firm knew it was “grossly overloaded”.
“This case should serve as a telling reminder that unsafe acts on a building site can and do lead to catastrophic consequences,” Judge Scotting stated.
“The overloading of the scaffold, the lack of vertical bracing, the removal of the ties and the removal of the transoms made the likelihood of the risk occurring so high, that it was almost certain.”
Judge Scotting acknowledged the Cassaniti household’s loss, who had described Christopher as a hardworking, variety and delicate younger man.
He stated any employer would have been proud to have such an “eager to learn” man on their group.
He additionally acknowledged Mr Wehbe’s trauma after the incident, and the way he’ll proceed to be affected by “the horror of that moment”.
In 2020, Synergy was fined $900,000, and on the time, Judge Scotting stated any steps to minimise the chance of an accident have been “simple and inexpensive”.
The firm was fined $2 million, after a ten per cent discount in penalty for an early responsible plea.
The most penalty for the offence underneath the Work Health and Safety Act is $3 million.
Originally printed as Scaffolding firm fined $2 million over younger tradie’s dying
