The ACT government has been ordered to pay more than $400,000 after a work health and safety failure led to the crushing and serious injury of a bus maintenance worker.
"Mitigating steps could easily have been taken, which makes the offending more serious," magistrate James Lawton said in the ACT Industrial Court on Wednesday.
Mr Lawton found the inherent danger of the "ad hoc" procedure taught to and used by Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate employees, and which led to the incident, was particularly aggravating.
Following a WorkSafe ACT investigation into the November 2021 crushing and admitting failing to comply with health and safety duties causing the risk of death or serious injury, the territory directorate was fined $375,000.
It was also ordered to pay $35,000 of the regulatory body's legal costs.
ACT work health and safety commissioner Jacqueline Agius issued a statement, saying, "While we celebrate the outcomes in court today, we have to remember that incidents like these are tragic, life altering and entirely preventable."
The incident
The victim was crushed while servicing a bus in Belconnen during the now-changed maintenance procedure, which involved another worker locking the vehicle's wheels and allowing access into its arch.
The investigation revealed there was no documented procedure for the maintenance task, which was carried out every few months while the bus was raised off the ground and its engine was running.
The worker in the wheel arch would indicate visually and verbally when they were finished greasing the bus's grease nipples before the steering wheel could be turned again.
However, in this case, the worker in the driver's seat turned the wheel when he believed a man walking past in similar clothing was the victim safely out of the front arch.
Still trapped, the victim was crushed between the wheel and the body of the bus.
The infrequency of the dangerous procedure, the magistrate said, did not mitigate Transport Canberra's culpability.
The victim was left with multiple fractured ribs and two partially collapsed lungs after spending a week in hospital.
"The ongoing trauma from this incident remains with me each and every day and I will never be the same person," that man previously said in a victim impact statement.
'First of its kind'
The court previously heard the case was the first time an ACT directorate had been prosecuted under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011.
Ms Agius said on Wednesday, "This is the first successful prosecution of its kind in the ACT, with the territory being convicted of a serious offence against the WHS laws.
"WorkSafe ACT will continue to focus on investigating failures of safety systems that put workers at risk."
Ms Agius also said inspectors enforced compliance with the law in every kind of workplace around the territory.
The ACT government made immediate changes to eliminate the risk following the incident, including allowing and requiring workers to access bus grease nipples from a service pit below.
The magistrate said replacing the grease nipples on the fleet to allow for this cost only $1000.
A "safe operating procedure" was also put in place shortly after and included requirements like the vehicle's ignition being turned off and the bus being secured.
"The defendant proffered an enforceable undertaking with a number of strategies which it estimates will cost something in the order of $750,000 to implement, dealing with safety and education across the whole organisation," Mr Lawton said.
"Although these undertakings were not accepted by the WorkSafe commissioner, the defendant has indicated it will still implement them."
