WA: COMPANY FINED JUST $18K AFTER CHILD KILLED

In a tragic incident, a 12-year-old boy entered a construction site and was killed. He was one of a group of children who entered the PTG Construction and Development residential construction site in Maddington in Western Australia through an open gate, on the evening of 9 May 2022. He then climbed into a roof area of a single-storey structure, before he fell and was struck by a falling lintel, sustaining fatal injuries.

PTG was subsequently charged, and pleaded guilty to, breaching the ‘Security of workplace’ clause of the WA Work Health and Safety (General) Regulations 2022, in failing to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that a workplace that it controlled was "secured from unauthorised access". Despite the site having security gates, these were often left open after hours, and the company did not have a system to ensure the gates were closed and locked when the site was unattended.  

Source: OHS Alert

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