A HOBART court has heard closing submissions from lawyers in the case of a pile-driving excavator operator — considered the best in the business — who was killed on the job in 2013.
Benjamin Wicks, 32, of South Arm, died when a one-tonne steel piling beam struck him on January 29, 2013, at the work site at McRobies Gully Waste Management Centre in South Hobart.
J. Hutchinson Pty Ltd, the contractor, has pleaded not guilty to failing to ensure the provision of safe work systems.
Before Magistrate Chris Webster, prosecutor Simon Nicholson said as the principal contractor, Hutchinson owed a duty of care to every worker on the site. This included Mr Wicks, who was employed as a subcontracting firm FPS.
Mr Nicholson said while a 10m exclusion zone had been in effect around the pile-driving site on the day of Mr Wicks’s accident, this had not applied to SPF workers engaged in the operation.
The prosecution said Mr Wicks had expressed concerns about the depth of the holes the beams were being lowered into, and about the “sling” method being used to manoeuvre them into place.
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Mr Nicholson said it was not necessary to prove the exact nature of the accident to prove the defendant’s guilt, only that Hutchinson had not carried out an assessment of the sling method before it was used.
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Hutchinson staff had been aware of concerns over the depth and location of holes, Mr Nicholson said, but the company had been unaware of the new system used SPF workers that were a direct response to these concerns.
But defence counsel Greg Mellick, SC, described a “cascading” system of delegated responsibility at the McRobies Gully worksite, where a concurrent duty for safety was shared by the Hutchinson site manager down to subcontractors and individual workers.
Mr Mellick acknowledged there had been concerns raised about the depth of holes, but there was no proof those concerns had continued after the holes were redug.
Further, there was no causal connection between the site safe-work plans and the accident in which Mr Wicks was killed, Mr Mellick said.
Magistrate Chris Webster reserved his decision for two months.
