Vic trailer manufacturer fined for unsafe lifting operation

A Victorian heavy-duty trailer manufacturer has been fined $25,000 for workplace safety violations after a trailer fell while being lifted, narrowly missing three workers.

The company pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to maintain safe systems of work and was sentenced in the Ballarat Magistrates' Court.  The court also ordered the company to pay costs of $5,742. 

On 20 June 2018, three workers used two cranes to lift a partially constructed trailer. This was usually done by attaching chains to lifting lugs, which were fixed to the trailer using a magnetic drill. On this day, workers were repairing the magnetic drills. Before lifting, they looped a chain and hooked around rails at the front and rear of the trailer.

As a worker placed a support stand under the raised trailer, it fell, hitting the stand. The trailer rolled to the right, narrowly missing the three workers.

Read the full story on the WorkSafe Victoria website.