(Australia)
A shipping, transport and logistics company has been fined $40,000 after a worker on a pedestrian walkway was struck by a forklift in its Port Melbourne warehouse.
Searoad Logistics Pty Ltd was fined without conviction, and ordered to pay an additional $9,870 in costs in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.
The company pleaded guilty to one charge under the Occupational Health and Safety Act for failing, so far as reasonably practicable, to ensure the workplace was safe and without risks to health.
The court heard that in May 2020, seconds after a forklift drove out through an open roller door, a truck driver walked into the warehouse via the same door. As he continued along the marked walkway, the forklift reversed back into the warehouse, hitting him, and crushing his left leg.
A WorkSafe investigation found it was reasonably practicable for the company to reduce the risk to health and safety by having a traffic management plan in place, and ensuring truck drivers were inducted into the workplace and advised of the plan.
It was also reasonably practicable to use physical barriers to stop people using the pedestrian walkways walking into areas where forklifts were operating, and mirrors to improve forklift drivers’ visibility.
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