A second inquiry into a fatal accident at an Army obstacle course in southern New South Wales three years ago has found Defence failed to make sure it was safe.
Private Liam Wolf died four days after an unexpected cardiac event caused him to fall off an obstacle and hit his head.
The Brisbane 18-year-old had been training at the Kapooka Army Training Centre near Wagga Wagga on April 19, 2019, when the incident occurred.
The Commandant of Kapooka, Colonel Andrew Deacon, said Private Wolf's death was a tragedy that was still being felt by community at the training centre.
In a statement, the national authority for work health and safety, Comcare, said it had concluded its investigation into the incident.
"Comcare's investigation into the incident identified failures in the Department of Defence's management of work health and safety risks for the obstacle course at Kapooka," it said.
"Defence has acted on Comcare's recommendations to revise and improve its risk assessment for the course and improve the provision of first aid equipment and training."
Changes to improve safety
Colonel Deacon says detailed risk assessments of the obstacles were carried out soon after the 2019 incident.
"In addition to that, before anyone uses the obstacle course the person who is in charge of that activity will conduct a detailed inspection of all of the equipment ... to make sure it is serviceable and nothing has changed since the last time it has been used," he said.
He said the actions have been reviewed to make sure they align with the recommendations of a NSW coronial inquest and Comcare.
The tunnel obstacle has not been used since Private Wolf's accident.
Mother asks why risks weren't identified
In a statement, Private Wolf's mother, Susan Devine, said she appreciated the changes Defence had made to make all the obstacles safer but questioned why it took her son's death for that to occur.
"How can such a major organisation not identify the risks that this tunnel posed? Liam was the victim in this horrible tragedy," Ms Devine said.
"No matter what they do now, they failed him.
Ms Devine said she was relieved the tunnel obstacle was no longer in operation.
"I just hope no other family has to go through what we have," she said.
"Every day we live with the pain of Liam's death and the fact that we will never see him again."
Better first aid equipment
The NSW coronial inquest found difficulties in delivering resuscitation and extraction from the tunnel obstacle contributed to the Brisbane teenager's death.
Colonel Deacon said improvements to allow a better first aid response have also been made.
"We've also improved the equipment that we have ... we improved our evacuation procedures so how we would bring ambulances onto the base in a timely way and refined those procedures."
Knee pads but not helmets
Colonel Deacon said in line with the recommendations of the NSW coronial inquest, Defence has also considered personal protective equipment for the obstacle course.
"Given we removed the risks associated with that head injury aspect, we haven't brought helmets in," he said.
"However, we have brought other personal protective equipment in such as knee and elbow pads to reduce the risks identified during our detailed risk assessments."
He said the use of electrocardiogram screening of recruits is still being considered.
