A central Queensland mine operator has been cleared of breaching workplace health and safety laws over the death of a miner, despite a court ruling there was an "obvious" risk with faulty machinery.
Last year Anglo Coal pleaded not guilty to one charge of failing to discharge its health and safety obligations in February, 2019 at Moranbah North mine.
This charge was made up of two complaints arising from separate incidents that took place around the same time frame, including the death of Bradley Hardwick.
The 47-year-old had been operating a grader when its braking system failed and caused it to roll backwards and crash into a drift runner carrying several people.
Mr Hardwick suffered multiple injuries, but the method of what caused his death was in contention at trial, with prosecutors alleging there was an "inescapable" inference he was hit by the grader.
The second part of the charge related to the grader causing bodily harm to three other workers when it collided with their vehicle.
During a hearing held last year, the Brisbane Magistrates court heard Mr Hardwick had completed necessary safety checks, before stopping and exiting the vehicle, but was unaware there was no air in its service brakes, rendering them faulty.
Because of this, only the park brake was operational, but this mechanism also had unknown flaws, and was unable to prevent the machine from rolling backwards.
The court heard the grader's braking system had an "unusual design feature" which meant both the park brake and the service brakes were engaged simultaneously.
WH&S prosecutors argued Anglo Coal knew about this feature but did not provide or develop an appropriate testing system to independently check the park brake was operating effectively.
The defence lawyers for the mine denied this, submitting its client's safety and health systems were "robust" and had a "rigorous and sophisticated" maintenance program, and ultimately "did all that it could" to prevent a risk in relation to the brakes.
'Peculiar' braking mechanism
When handing down his decision on Thursday, Magistrate Michael Quinn told the court he was satisfied the mine had failed to implement a suitable testing regime which factored in the "peculiar" feature.
Magistrate Quinn told the court because of this, "Anglo provided an unsafe piece of machinery" and the safety risk it posed on Mr Hardwick would have been "obvious".
"The fault discovered post incident … could have been detected pre incident," he said.
However, after reviewing evidence provided by medical experts and another worker, Magistrate Quinn told the court he was unable to definitively rule how Mr Hardwick died.
"I cannot be satisfied that the grader caused his death," he said.
Instead, he pointed to the possibility raised at trial of another vehicle being involved, and ruled Anglo Coal was not guilty of causing Mr Hardwick's death.
Magistrate Quinn did find the mine had failed in its obligation under WH&S legislation to the second complaint, and was guilty of causing the bodily harm to the other men who were struck by the grader.
It will be sentenced for this contravention at a later date.
