SafeWork SA prosecuted JMA Engineering Pty Ltd after an investigation found the company was reckless in its failure to protect its workers from the risk of death or serious injury as prescribed under the Work Health and Safety Act 2012.

The incident took place in February 2021 when the cable on a gantry crane failed, causing a stainless steel tank weighing more than three tonnes to fall on a worker, crushing him to death.

JMA Engineering was sentenced in the South Australian Employment Court on 15 November 2024.

A SafeWork SA investigation found the gantry crane, and others operated by the company, had not been subjected to regular maintenance.

Where maintenance had occurred, it did not comply with the relevant codes of practice. An offer by another company to include the crane in a servicing run scheduled for the Riverland two months before the incident was not taken up by JMA Engineering.

JMA Engineering conducts a fabrication business from its Berri premises where it manufactures stainless steel tanks including for use in wineries.

Part of the tank construction process requires the tanks to be suspended from an overhead crane while the welding was undertaken inside and outside of the tank frame. The tanks are large structures weighing several tonnes.

A ramp was set up to provide workers access to a basement under the floor of the shed to allow access to the tanks via a trapdoor to avoid exposure directly under a suspended tank.

However, the SafeWork SA investigation found that it was common practice for workers to take a shorter route by going under the suspended tank to gain access, placing them directly beneath and in the path of the tank should it fall.

In sentencing, the Court accepted that this practice had become so common that the tribunal found it had become the system of work at JMA Engineering.

On 23 February 2021, an apprentice boilermaker was under a suspended tank when the crane’s cable failed and the tank fell on him.
Damage to the crane’s cable had been identified and repaired twice in the four weeks before the incident.

The company was charged with a Category 1 offence against section 19 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2012. The production manager David Pahl was also charged with a Category 2 offence against section 32 of the Act.

Both pleaded guilty and convictions were recorded.

The company was fined $840,000, which is a record amount for an offence under the South Australian WHS legislation. The Court also imposed mandatory training on all the company’s directors, managers and staff responsible for safety.

Through its guilty plea, JMA Engineering admitted that it was reckless as to the risk of death or serious injury.
The company was aware:
* Of the risk of workers moving under the suspended tanks and condoned a system of work which permitted if not encouraged such a practice.
* Of issues with the cable to the crane. It was aware, at least after the second cable repair, that questions of the safety of the use of the crane remained.
* It was not routinely maintaining or servicing their cranes.

Pahl was fined $12,000. It was found that Pahl:

* Was in a significant level of authority, leading and managing a production team of approximately 25 workers.
* Took no action to address the unsafe system of moving under suspended loads notwithstanding his knowledge of the practice.
* Made no adequate response to the identified repeated problem of the fraying cable.
* Gave the direction for the repairs the second time the cable frayed, without reference to the maintenance manager or initiating enquiries as to the cause.

In his sentencing remarks, Deputy President Judge Crawley said there were “a number of troubling aspects to the facts of this case”.
Judge Crawley said unlike a number other WHS cases he had presided over, the practices giving rise to the fatality were an integral part of the JMA Engineering business.

‘The defendants had prior warning of the potential for the tragedy which unfolded to occur,’ Judge Crawley said.

‘The unsafe practice of avoiding the use of the ramp and trapdoor to access the interior of the tanks was well known and had become the system of work.

‘The problems with the cable to the crane had been identified and not resolved.’

Quotes attributable to SafeWork SA Executive Director Glenn Farrell

This is a significant outcome and the first of its type under South Australian WHS legislation where a defendant has been sentenced for a Category 1 offence where the risk of death manifested from reckless conduct.

This is identified in the judgement by the imposition of a record fine that should send a strong message that reckless behaviour that exposes workers to the risk of death will be punished accordingly.

This was a case where the business activities were so well known and the culture of the workplace had become complacent to the risk of harm, that a life was unnecessarily lost. A lost life that could very easily have been avoided had the safety of workers been a priority to the business.

I urge all those who have a responsibility toward ensuring the safety of workers to stop and reflect on what they must and could do better to prevent the tragic consequences of poor safety practices.

It should not take a serious incident or death to trigger improvements being made to protect workers from harm.