A CIVIL construction firm has been fined $45,000 for failing to ensure its employees were safe from injury, after the death of one of its truck drivers.

The manager of All Earth Works Pty Ltd, Peter Maxwell Toms, 64, of Chigwell, was also fined $5000 after pleading guilty to failing to take reasonable care as an employer.

Truck driver William Pegg, 65, was crushed to death on April 14 last year as an excavator was being loaded onto his prime mover.

Hobart magistrate Catherine Rheinberger, imposing the penalties, categorised the culpability of the company, a small family firm, as moderate.

She said the firm had not been aware of brake problems.

Court documents showed Mr Pegg's truck was parked on a hill at the company's work site in Jameson St, Glenorchy.

Mr Toms tried to drive an excavator on to the float behind the truck but as he did the truck and float slid down the road and crashed into a railing. Mr Pegg, who had got out of the truck in apparent panic, was crushed under the wheels of the float.

Ms Rheinberger said only a verbal risk assessment had been made before the excavator was loaded.

She said if all brakes had been applied it may have been enough to hold the prime mover and float in position.

The company admitted failing to ensure a safe system for loading the excavator, which would have included ensuring the truck's wheels were chocked, workers' movements were supervised and all brakes were applied.

Ms Rheinberger noted that All Earth Works had operated for more than 10 years and had no previous convictions.

Since the fatal incident it had employed a new mechanic, the float had been sold and transport of machinery was now outsourced.

She said Mr Pegg was a well-respected and valued employee and his death had made an enormous impact, including on his daughter Karla Hardwick and her 12-year-old son, who idolised his grandfather.

Ms Rheinberger said Mr Pegg, who had worked for the firm for seven years, and Mr Toms obviously had confidence in each other.

She said Mr Toms, who had been in control of the excavator, had failed to ensure he knew the exact location of Mr Pegg, and failed to ensure all the brakes were applied including the foot brake in the prime mover.

This is a very fundamental safety infringement!
Most unprofessional, inexcusable under all circumstances!

As unfortunate as it is, mistakes do happen. You can't eliminate all risk in the workplace through legislation. If you try, you often create problems worse than those you tried to solve. I've heard many horror stories of people being injured because of OH&S requirements. And when that happens, when OH&S stuffs up and requires workplaces do something that is potentially more dangerous than the way they were operating, everyone is screwed because every workplace is required to do things the exact same way. When you say to every workplace they have to do this, this and this, then they will only do that, that and that and no one will try to find better, safer ways of working for fear of the health and safety police.

Crook do you think the fine was too light?

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As a former OH&S rep. for many years I can empathise fully with that sentiment.
In a way, it's like comparing analog to digital. Workplaces are analog, there is no digital program that will fit the bill for all companies.
The difference (in reality) between a safe worker and an unsafe worker may be as subtle as a nod or a raised eyebrow.
I've seen many reps. and management hellbent on employing new systems of safety, but they aren't prepared at all for the intitial chaos which will eventuate from stealing away common sense.

There are obvious safety measures which need to be employed of course, and most often, they will be sidelined because of capital that needs to be raised to invest in safer work practices.

Steadfast, generic work practices are long overdue, but the simple "nod or timely word of advice" should not be underestimated IMO.
It's invaluable to have a workforce that knows each other and who works together as a team.
A "Throwaway" workforce is an unsafe workforce, nomatter which systems of safety are employed.
If it gets to the point of accepting or believing that a generic code will fit all, then the plot is lost. Natural fallibilties are usually to be accepted to a certain degree, but what the "generic" workplace offers these days is only a desire to not be involved in that crap whatsoever if you consider yourself to be at all human.i

It's crazy on the mine sites these days. You can loose your job if you fail to park a vehicle so it won't move, even with all the brakes off. This goes for haul trucks as well as your own car in the carpark. They have those little speed bump things and you have to leave the clutch in and wait for the vehicle to settle in a low point before putting the handbrake on etc.

Makes sense for the big vehicles, but it seems a bit excessive for passenger vehicles.