Teenager dragged head first in printing press dies

Article from: Herald Sun
February 18, 2009 07:00pm

AN 18 year-old man who was caught in a printing machine at a carton
manufacturing plant in Thomastown has died.The man suffered severe
injuries after he was dragged head first into a box-printing machine at a
factory in the northern suburb of Thomastown shortly after 2pm
yesterday, a WorkSafe Victoria spokesman said.

It took firefighters about 45 minutes to extract the man from the machine.
He was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he later died.
His death brought to four the number of people killed in a Victorian workplace
this year.

WorkSafe Victoria is investigating the death and said it is a warning to all
employers and workers. Worksafe executive director John Merritt said
on Wednesday that every employer should be meeting with their staff
about known or predictable safety issues, and then develop and act on a
safety improvement plan. "If you already have one - review it,
" Mr Merritt said. "If machines are unguarded, if people don't have
appropriate training, licensing or supervision and workers do not have
the equipment needed to do their job safely - or if they're not using it -
those issues must be dealt with today."

A WorkSafe spokesman has confirmed the man's clothing caught in
rotating parts of the machine, dragging him into it.
WorkSafe has issued notices ordering the company to install better guards
on the machine. It is not yet clear if charges will be laid over the incident.

WCV's: Well, it had better become clearer Worksafe!

If this machine didn't have guards that were up to standard then you
had better lay charges against this employer!!!! They were obviously not
compliant?

Victorian workers already know going by the fatality rate this year, 4 so far
that you are not doing your job competently!!

So whats you re excuse this time Mr Merritt, here's another worker
who didn't make it home safely. What are you going to do about it?

Foster's fined $1.1m after work death

Article from: The Australian Written by: Ewin Hannan August 06, 2008

BREWING giant Foster's Australia Ltd has been fined $1.125 million and
slammed for inadequate work practices after the death of an employee
at its Abbotsford plant in Melbourne.

Cuu Huynh, 58, had his neck jammed between a handrail and the heavy
steel doors of a depalletiser, which used a conveyor belt to move empty
beer bottles, on April 13, 2006.

Mr Huynh, described by his family as a caring, hard-working father of three
who loved ballroom dancing, died in hospital a week later from asphyxiation.
County Court judge Jane Campton sharply criticised Foster's for failing to
take appropriate action after another employee had his head caught in a
similar incident in 2002.

Foster's pleaded guilty to failing to provide plant and systems of work that
were safe, and failing to provide enough information, instruction and
supervision to employees to ensure their workplace was safe.
Foster's was fined $562,500 on each count. If it had not pleaded guilty,
the fines would have totalled $1.5 million.

The fine is the largest for a single workplace death in Victorian history.

Esso was fined $2 million over the Longford gas explosion in 1998 that killed
two employees and injured eight workers.

John Merritt, executive director of health and safety at WorkSafe Victoria,
said the fine was justified. "This problem was known and it wasn't fixed until
a man died - that is what makes this case so serious," he said.
Before the accident, the workplace culture at the plant encouraged the
machine operators to maintain production by not stopping the depalletisers
when they were clearing jams or cleaning the machine.

"This was because a computer tracked down time for the machines and
supervisors queried operators over any stoppages," Judge Campton said.
"An added incentive for the operators to keep the machines running was
that they were permitted to leave work an hour earlier on the last shift of
the week if they had completed cleaning the machine."