LD Operations Pty Limited was fined $136,000 in the NSW District Court for a breach of the Work Health and Safety Act and causing a worker at Mannering Colliery to be seriously injured.
The conviction and fine was the result of a prosecution by the NSW Resources Regulator over an incident on January 22, 2016.
Judge David Russell found that the potential consequences of the incident were very serious and there were steps available to LD Operations to eliminate or minimise the risk. LD Operations provided labour and services to the coal mine operator at the 40-year-old underground Mannering Colliery on Ruttleys Rd, Doyalson.
The worker was severely injured while driving a loader underground, when a damaged steel roof support strap entered the open cab and struck the man’s head.
He had a severe head laceration which required 60 stitches. It was the worker’s first day on duty underground at Mannering Colliery, which had been in a care and maintenance period since November, 2012.
LakeCoal had just started the transition to recommence operations and contracted LD Operations Pty Limited to provide labour and services for a project to build an underground link from the mine to the adjacent Chain Valley Colliery. Judge Russell found that a 2014 Workplace Risk Assessment and Control, and a review in 2015, both identified potential hazards arising from underground transport in Mannering Colliery, but the risk controls proposed were not implemented prior to January 22, 2016.
He said in his Judgement that there was little burden or inconvenience in implementing those steps to eliminate or minimise the identified risks. In a previous court case relating to the same incident, LakeCoal was also prosecuted for a breach of its health and safety duties arising from the Act and was convicted and fined $180,000.
Source: NSW District Court Judgement, Dec 5 Caselaw website. Investigation Report, Nov 2017 NSW Resources Regulator Media release, Dec 9 NSW Dept Planning, Industry & Environment. Reporter: Sue Murray