Queensland Quad Bike Death and A $300,000 Fine Issued After A Fatality At A Cheese Factory

Man dies after quad bike crash in central Queensland

A man has been killed in a quad bike crash in central Queensland.

The incident happened at a private property near Yeppoon on Wednesday night.

Emergency services were called to the scene just after 6 pm following reports of a quad bike incident involving a 38-year-old man.

Police said the man suffered serious injuries following the incident.

He died at the scene.

Quad bikes are the leading cause of death and serious injuries on Australian farms.

More than 250 people have been killed in quad bike incidents since 2001.

In 2020, 24 quad bike deaths occurred on Australian farms.

Source can be found here.

Fatality at Vic cheese factory leads to $300,000 fine

An engineering company has been fined $300,000 after a 59-year-old man lost his life in a workplace incident at a Victorian cheese factory four years ago.

The company had earlier pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to ensure that the workplace under its control was safe and without risks to health. The engineering company was sentenced without conviction in the Melbourne County Court on Thursday.

The court was told that the company was overseeing the dismantling and packing of equipment at a decommissioned cheese factory for relocation to New Zealand in December 2017.

The court heard that the company had no representative on-site when a condenser weighing 770 kilograms was moved into a closed-top shipping container with a crane.

Two workers inside the container were preparing to remove skates from underneath the condenser when it fell off the jack, fatally crushing a 59-year-old man and seriously injuring his colleague.

An investigation conducted by WorkSafe Victoria found there were reasonably practicable measures available to reduce or eliminate the risk associated with the task. The safety watchdog said the company also failed to ensure workers were appropriately supervised.

Read the full story here.