The employer and manager of a company which had two serious safety incidents in 13 months have been ordered to pay fines $376,000.

Rapid Roller Co Pty Ltd which was based at Fairfield and manager Raymond Leslie Tough, pleaded guilty to workplace health and safety charges as a result of the incidents which left a man dead with horrific injuries and another with permanent injuries to a hand.

Rapid Roller built and re-conditioned rollers used in the printing and paper making industries.

On 5 May 2006, employee Scott Dunlop was using a lathe when he lost two-thirds of one finger and the tendons of the others were severely damaged. He could not drive for five months. This incident was not reported to WorkSafe.

On 1 June 2007 Robin Power of East St Kilda died when he was dragged into another lathe while using emery paper to remove an anti-rusting chemical from a roller. The practice was common at Rapid Roller and known of by the manager, Ray Tough, and the company.

Mr Power’s clothes were caught on a bolt protruding from the rotating shaft, he was pulled in and suffered appalling fatal injuries.

Rapid Roller was convicted and fined $46,000 in relation to the first incident and convicted and fined $300,000 on the second.

Mr Tough, who the court was told had suffered from depression and post traumatic stress disorder as a result of Mr Power’s death, was fined a total of $30,000.

Judge Cotterell said complacency was unacceptable and inadequate allowance was made for the potential for human error.

WorkSafe’s investigations found:
•    employees working on rotating machinery were not given close-fitting overalls and Mr Power was regularly seen using sticky tape to secure his sleeves so they  could not be caught by the machine;
•    employees were not properly supervised to ensure they did not wear loose fitting clothing when operating lathes;
•    no lathes at the Fairfield business were fitted with fixed or interlocked guards to prevent entanglement in the rotating chucks of the machines;
•    emergency stops for the machine were inadequate;
•    the lathe was operated in an unguarded state using an unsafe system of work

The director of WorkSafe’s Manufacturing, Logistics and Agriculture program, Ross Pilkington, said the situation at Rapid Roller was not unusual.

“They’d operated in a particular way for a long time does not mean it’s being done safely. It means you’ve just been lucky.

“Everyone involved in these matters are hit hard. The victims’ family, friends, workmates, employer, emergency service workers and WorkSafe’s team have all been affected.
   
“If simple and inexpensive measures had been taken here, it’s likely neither incident would have happened.

Employers and workers can find information on making workplaces safer can be found on WorkSafe’s website – www.worksafe.vic.gov.au -  or by calling WorkSafe’s Advisory Service on 1800-136-089.