Tragic death emphasises requirement for health and safety measures to protect customers...
The District Court has recently ordered a company to pay over $382,000 after health and safety failures led to the tragic death of a customer.
The company took their customers near where vehicles were operating. While a customer was completing one of the company’s activities, he came into the path of a moving vehicle. The customer was run over by the vehicle and sadly did not survive the incident.
The Court had to determine whether the company had failed to meet its health and safety obligations and, if it had, what payments the company should make.
Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking have various health and safety obligations. One of those obligations is to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that the health and safety of other persons are not put at risk by the company’s activities.
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The Court emphasised that a company’s health and safety obligations go beyond the protection of employees and extend to any person affected by the company’s activities.
A WorkSafe investigation found that the company had failed to identify and control the hazards involved with their tours and did not have effective systems in place. The investigation also found that a similar incident had occurred in the same area three years earlier which involved a different company.
The Court decided that the company had failed to implement proper health and safety measures. The company did not have a traffic management system in place, nor had they taken other measures to ensure their customers were safe from vehicles operated by others.
These failures meant that customers were put at risk of serious injury or death. The Court ordered the company to pay a fine of $200,000, as well as reparations of over $182,200.
It is absolutely vital to ensure that companies are fulfilling their health and safety obligations in relation to their employees, as well as other persons affected by their business. With proper health and safety precautions, tragic accidents like this one can be avoided.