Sydney, Australia based Stephensons Cranes has been fined A$65,000 and ordered to publicise the facts of the case, after a young man was seriously injured after a fall and being crushed by a load of timber flooring. The New South Wales industrial relations commission’s justice Francis Marks also ordered Stephensons Cranes of Arndell Park, to advertise details of the case at its own cost in The Daily Telegraph, the Construction Contractor and Crane Lift. WorkCover operational health and safety division general manager John Watson said: “The incident could have been prevented and serves as a warning to the construction industry.”The then 19 year-old apprentice carpenter Jamie Kirchen was working for Mintark on a residential site. He was standing on timber joists on the top of the first storey of a building and was directing the crane operator to land a pallet of timber flooring onto the joists. He was removing the slings from the pallet when the unsecured joists on which he was standing gave way under the weight of the load. He fell around 2.5 metres, while the pallet load of wood landed on him. He suffered multiple fractures including to his pelvis and lost part of his bowel.
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