CFMEU Digs Excavation Safety

The CFMEU has launched a blitz on excavator safety after an incident which left a teenage worker paralysed resulted in just $40,000 in fines.

Andrew Jamieson, 18, had his spinal cord severed when a bucket fell from an excavator on a WA site because a safety pin was not attached.

Murphy Demolition was fined $30,000 and its two directors fined $5000 each.

CFMEU Safety Officer Dick Whitehead said the practice of removing the safety pins from excavators had become too prevalent.

"There's been far too many accidents with these quick hitch devices," Whitehead said.

"Apart from this incident in Western Australia, there's been a double fatality in Victoria and two serious accidents in NSW."

Whitehead said the word had been put out to all organisers and delegates to not work with machines that did not have the safety pins attached.

"What we're seriously looking at now is a concerted campaign by the union movement."

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Last modified: Thursday, 01-Dec-2005 16:04:32 EST