Repeat forklift incident sees transport company's fine rise to $50,000
10 Mar 2025•BlueSafe Team•Source: WorkSafe VIC
Minus 1 Refrigerated Transport Pty Ltd has been convicted and fined $50,000 following an appeal over a forklift incident that seriously injured a worker at its Dandenong South workplace.
The company initially pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to provide or maintain a safe system of work without risks to health. In October 2024, the Dandenong Magistrates' Court fined it $20,000 without conviction.
Following an appeal, the County Court set aside that sentence and imposed a conviction and a $50,000 fine on Friday 28 February. The company was also ordered to pay $4,575 in costs.
The incident occurred in June 2023 while a forklift was unloading a van in the workplace driveway. It reversed into a worker who was walking in the same direction. His right leg was dragged underneath the forklift and run over again when the forklift moved forward, causing partial de-gloving of his calf, a fractured ankle and a fractured tibia.
WorkSafe's investigation established that the driveway was not a designated loading and unloading area, although it had previously been used for that purpose. Reasonably practicable measures included implementing a traffic management plan to maintain a three-metre exclusion zone between pedestrians and mobile plant, and ensuring loading and unloading took place only in designated areas.
The court also heard that the company had previously been fined $20,000 without conviction over a similar incident in 2022. In that case, a reversing forklift struck a truck driver, leaving him with broken ribs and fractured vertebrae.
WorkSafe Executive Director of Health and Safety Sam Jenkin said there was no excuse for failing to adequately separate forklifts from pedestrians. "Our data shows that on average more than one worker every week is seriously injured in incidents involving forklifts, which is simply unacceptable when the ways to control the risk are easily adopted and relatively low cost," Mr Jenkin said.
"It is incredibly disappointing that a second person has been injured due to this company's failure to implement basic safety measures to keep pedestrians out of harm's way."
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