The first of two companies has been sentenced over a worker death arising from a fall from a laundry truck tailgate in Dandenong in June 2023. Ensign Services Pty Ltd (trading as Laundry Services Australia) was fined $270,000 with conviction for their failures that contributed to the fatal incident.
Ensign Services provides laundry services to commercial and industrial clients across Australia and New Zealand. At their Dandenong workplace they contract Rodrigues Transport Pty Ltd to provide vehicles and drivers for laundry pickups and deliveries. Included in the contract between the two companies was a specific requirement that the tailgate of each vehicle provided by Rodrigues Transport be fitted with a “folding safety driver fall prevention rail painted yellow (guardrails as per AS1657, 2018, 60 kg push force, 35 kg down force)”.
On the day of the incident the 55-year-old truck driver arrived at Ensign Services workplace to collect clean laundry for delivery.
The truck driver followed the standard process established in that workplace for unloading/loading laundry. He reversed his truck to the workplace’s loading dispatch dock along a series of painted lines that marked out where the driver should stop. Once in position, the driver lowered the tailgate of the truck until it touched the edge of the loading dock to form a bridge between the truck and the loading dock, went inside to raise the dispatch dock’s roller doors and commence the loading process, then stood on the tailgate of the truck to tie down the laundry trolleys to prevent movement during transit.
A second driver was working at a loading dock nearby and heard a loud thud as the truck driver’s body hitting the concrete floor after falling 1.2m from the elevated tailgate of the laundry truck. The second driver called for help immediately and an ambulance transported the injured driver to the Alfred Hospital. Nineteen days later he passed away from his injuries.
As reported in a previous SafetyNet, WorkSafe charged both companies in June this year, just days before the two-year time-frame within which WorkSafe must bring charges for indictable offenses.
During WorkSafe’s investigation a mechanical engineer provided an expert report stating - falls are known to be an injurious hazard and falls from height are known to be more injurious; a folding safety rail on the truck’s tailgate was an acceptable safety system; a folding safety rail on the truck’s tailgate could be complemented by swinging gates; and, a swinging gate and safety rail were commercially available prior to the incident.
It was found that the truck from which the driver had fallen had previously had safety rails on the tailgate, but they had been removed prior to the incident.
Ensign Services accepted that it was reasonably practicable for it to have reduced the risk to drivers by installing swing gates at the loading dock to be used when a delivery truck did not have its own safety rails. Despite Ensign Services having been sold after the incident, with the current owners having not operated the business at the time of the incident, a plea of guilty was entered and the case was heard summarily (i.e. by a judge rather than a jury).
Ensign Services had a duty under the OHS Act to ensure that the means of entering and leaving their workplace was safe, not just for workers, but also for contractors and other parties. The risk of falls is a well known risk that Ensign Services was aware of, given the inclusion in the contract of the requirement for protection around the tailgate.
Read more: Laundry operator fined $270,000 after fatal fall | WorkSafe Victoria
