WA freight firm fined for hazard

The international freight company, Wridgways Ltd was fined $10,000 after pleading guilty in the Midland Magistrates Court in Western Australia for failing to ensure a person’s safety, after a forklift struck a visitor’s car in the company’s freight yard.

The court was told that, in 2007, a man, a woman and two children had visited the company’s premises to collect an item that had been freighted in by Wridgways.

Company rules stipulated that clients arriving to collect goods would be escorted by a staff member to the relevant location. Normally, the company would use a mobile radio to advise mobile plant operators in the yard that clients were about to collect goods.

At the time, a power failure had occurred and the radio was not working. There was no radio contact with the plant operators in the yard.

The four people drove across the yard without escort. As one of the four was getting out of the car, it was struck by a container forklift under load. The driver’s visibility was reduced and he did not see the clients’ vehicle.

WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said that fortunately, there were no serious injuries from the incident: “However, the potential for serious harm and the risk of a collision when pedestrians and visitors enter a site used mainly by large mobile plan is obvious. Wridgways’ processes did not address situations where there was a risk due to power failure.

“It is clear that alternate measures should have been put in place. Having safe systems of work is one of the basic and most obvious means of minimising the risk of injury to workers or anybody else on site. All employers need to be aware of the need to ensure that workplaces are safe.”