Excavator hitting powerlines lands $140K fine


Wednesday, 05 March, 2025

Excavator hitting powerlines lands $140K fine

An excavator that brought down a 415-volt (V) overhead powerline has led to a conviction and an Adelaide demolition company being fined $140,000 — the incident exposed the operator to risk of death or serious injury. The incident, which occurred on 6 December 2022, resulted in electricity disruption to 84 properties for about six hours and damage to two neighbouring properties.

Royal Park Salvage Pty Ltd had been engaged to demolish a residential property at Onkara Avenue, Ingle Farm, which involved removing a number of trees from the front yard of the property, which were underneath a 415 V powerline. The operator — who had worked for the company for 25 years — proceeded with the removal of the shrubs, despite a ‘spotter’ for the excavation work failing to arrive.

The excavator made contact with the overhead powerlines at around 7.10 am, severing one of them. The operator was unaware of the incident until he was alerted by a nearby resident at 7.17 am. SA Power Networks and emergency services attended the property to make the area safe. SafeWork SA also attended to begin an investigation, issuing the company with two Improvement Notices before commencing a prosecution.

On 25 February 2025 following a SafeWork SA prosecution, Royal Park Salvage Pty Ltd was sentenced in the South Australian Employment Tribunal — charged with breaching section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act over its failure to adequately identify the hazards created by the work and put in place measures to eliminate or reduce the risk. Deputy President Lieschke found Royal Park Salvage’s “existing safety management system was grossly inadequate” in handing down his judgement.

“The result is that an operator was allowed to take serious risks of suffering extreme harm from having to work near live powerlines,” Lieschke wrote. “The known risk of death or serious injury from downing a live powerline was luckily not realised with no one injured, although there was significant property damage and supply interruptions to many neighbours.” Lieschke added: “However, it is the risk of injury and not the occurrence of an actual injury that is the main consideration.”

“This incident could so easily have had tragic consequences for the excavator operator and serves as a warning to all contractors working around live powerlines,” said SafeWork SA Executive Director Glenn Farrell. “The company failed to provide a safe system of work that exposed their worker to a risk of electrocution.”

Lieschke recorded a conviction against Royal Park Salvage Pty Ltd, fined it $140,000, and ordered that it pay a Victims of Crime Levy of $424 and a contribution of $1210 towards SafeWork SA’s legal costs. Farrell said that despite issuing warnings about the dangers of working unsafely near overhead powerlines, SafeWork SA has issued 12 statutory notices at nine worksites since July last year.

Image credit: iStock.com/Don Nielsen. Stock image used is for illustrative purposes only.

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