Company pleads guilty over mechanic's death in 2023
A mining maintenance company in Western Australia's Goldfields has pleaded guilty over the death of a worker nearly three years ago.
Heavy diesel mechanic Ty Drummond died at the South Boulder workshop of ATS Mining Maintenance on December 11, 2023.
According to WorkSafe, the 25-year-old was instructed to remove the front axle from a mining truck, known as a Sandvik TH663.
It is alleged that a deflated front left tyre caused the truck to lean at an angle, and when Mr Drummond went under it, the jack supporting the truck failed and he was fatally injured.
Detectives at the South Boulder workshop, where 25-year-old heavy-duty fitter Ty Drummond died. (ABC Goldfields: Robert Koenig-Luck)
Maximum penalty is $3.5m fine
WorkSafe WA charged Dalmain Enterprises Proprietary Limited — trading as ATS — in December last year with failing to provide and maintain a safe working environment and, by that failure, causing the death of a worker.
Defence lawyer Sarah Harvey appeared for the company in the Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court on Friday and entered a guilty plea on its behalf.
The charge, under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020, has since been amended to a PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking) failed to comply with a health and safety duty under section 19, which caused the death or serious harm to a worker.
Investigators leave the Leviathan Street business in South Boulder in December 2023. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)
The case has been to court seven times since the company was charged, with the defence and prosecution requesting several adjournments for negotiations over the past seven months.
Prosecutor Ethan Heywood told the court the reason for the delays was "broader alleged failings" by the company, including a documented risk assessment for working under an elevated truck.
WorkSafe has alleged the company also failed to provide adequate instruction or supervision, or use a suitable work lift crane alongside jack stands to support the truck.
Mr Heywood, from the State Solicitor's Office, told the court the maximum penalty for the charge was a $3.5 million fine.
'Complex sentencing exercise': magistrate
Lawyers for both parties agreed the sentencing hearing would likely take up to half a day.
Ms Harvey said the defence would file "extensive mitigation material" for the sentencing hearing.
Magistrate Donna Webb adjourned sentencing until February 10 next year.
She told the court the case represented a "complex sentencing exercise", and she would "look at other case law" to consider the penalties.
A recent case where WorkSafe prosecuted companies under the new Act, which came into effect in March 2022, involved mining contractor MLG Oz, which received a $750,000 fine after a worker's arm was crushed in a mobile stacker conveyor in April 2022.
Gold miner Evolution Mining was fined $200,000 over the same incident.
Last year, timber processing company Wesbeam was fined $385,000 after a worker's arm became trapped in a conveyor.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.