Employer fined $15,000 over fatal fall
Issue Date: - Tuesday, 2 December 2008
An employer has been fined $15,000 over the death of a man who fell from the roof of a warehouse in Fremantle.
Sean Peter Sellin – trading as Sellin Engineering – pleaded guilty and was fined in the Fremantle Magistrates Court yesterday for failing to provide and maintain a safe working environment.
The company was engaged to replace two warehouse roofs in Fremantle in November 2004, and Mr Sellin and an employee were on the roof of one of the warehouses removing screws from the existing roof sheets.
Another employee brought some equipment up to the roof where the two men were working, and asked Mr Sellin why they were removing all the screws from the roof sheets they were walking on because the sheets could slide down the roof towards the gutter.
Mr Sellin explained that they had left a row of screws in another area of the roof. However by 8.00am, both men were walking on an area of the roof where the sheets had been completely unscrewed.
One of the unscrewed sheets had slid down the roof, and the employee working with Mr Sellin stood on that sheet. It bent towards the floor, creating an opening in the roof, and the man fell around nine metres to the concrete floor below. He died in hospital later that morning.
It was practicable and the usual practice in the roofing industry to leave some screws in the sheets, and to only remove those screws while standing on another sheet in which some screws remained. The purpose of this practice is to prevent falls through roofs.
WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said today that this case illustrated the extreme importance of having safe systems of work in place and providing adequate protection against falls.
“These men were working at a considerable height, but a safe system of work was not in place,” Ms Lyhne said.
“Mr Sellin was actually questioned by another employee about his work methods – removing all the screws from roof sheets – but the work continued in an unsafe manner.
“It’s really disappointing to see a lack of fall protection in workplaces because falls are readily preventable and it need not be difficult or costly to ensure that suitable barriers or fall arrest systems are organised before a tragedy can occur.
“Falls are one of the most significant causes of workplace death in the construction industry, and four Western Australian workers have died in less than 18 months as a result of falls. A further 1260 are injured each year, many seriously and permanently.
“In addition, a code of practice on fall prevention has existed in WA for the past 18 years, with the original code being initiated in response to the number of fatalities being recorded in the construction industry at that time.
“The current code is comprehensive – providing information on the identification of common fall hazards and the use of fall arrest equipment – and I urge all employers with workplaces that may contain fall hazards to ensure copies of the code are readily available at their workplaces.”
The Code of Practice on the Prevention of Falls in Workplaces can be downloaded at no cost from WorkSafe’s website at www.worksafe.wa.gov.au.
Media contact: Caroline De Vaney 9327 8744 or 0408 927563 (media enquiries only).