A car component maker has been fined in the Industrial Court today after a worker was injured by unguarded machinery identified as hazardous five years earlier.

Toyoda Gosei Australia Pty Ltd had already pleaded guilty to breaching section 19(1) of the Occupational Health Safety and Welfare Act 1986, in that it failed to ensure the safety of an employee at work.

The company runs the old Bridgestone factory at Edwardstown where it manufactures rubber parts for the car industry. SafeWork SA prosecuted after investigating an incident there in May 2009.

A 44 year old man employed as a team leader sustained injuries to his right hand when it was drawn into an auger used to process and transport raw rubber. He suffered serious lacerations and fractures to two fingers of his hand, which left them permanently impaired. The court was told he has since returned to normal duties with the firm.

The investigation found that the opening to the auger’s feed box was unguarded, but also that the risk of such an injury occurring had been identified five years earlier (2004) in an engineer’s report on the machine but not acted upon. Two more reviews in following years also failed to address the specific hazard.

Industrial Magistrate Stephen Lieschke said the employer’s complacency may well have been influenced by a lack of relevant reported injuries or incidents:

“…the normal work process occasionally required the manual handling of product
immediately adjacent to powerful dangerous machinery. The risk was obvious. There is
no adequate explanation as to why appropriate controls were not implemented.”

Magistrate Lieschke imposed a conviction and fined the defendant $36,000 after a discount of 20 per cent to acknowledge the early guilty plea, cooperation, contrition, and prompt remedial action to install guards to all such machines.

SafeWork SA said this is the 12th conviction related to unguarded machinery imposed by the Industrial Court this year.

“This is another case where a worker has paid the price for their employer’s failure to follow through and fix the hazards that had already been identified.

“Written safety systems often look impressive on paper, but they must be followed up with prompt and firm action in order to be truly effective,” said Acting Executive Director, Bryan Russell.