5/03/2008

News Item

Company fined $162k over blast deaths

A company has been fined $162,500 after two of its staff died on the job in Wagga Wagga, in southern New South Wales.

Viscount Rotational Mouldings, which manufactures plastic water tanks, pleaded guilty to breaching the state's occupational health and safety law.

The men, Mark Smith of Wagga and Warren Law of Junee, died in November 2005 when they were trying to pull a tank from a mould and the compressed air caused an explosion.

The judge found the employer had addressed its occupational health and safety responsibilities both prior to and immediately after the accident, but said the accident was a serious deficiency in the day-to-day system of work.

The men's employer was acknowledged as having helped the families of Mr Law and Mr Smith in a number of ways since the accident, as well as being genuinely contrite over the deaths.

source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/05/2180676.htm