A company has been fined $90,000 in a West Australian court after a worker was injured three years ago while unloading pipes from a truck.
In October 2012, Process Minerals International employee Meliton Garcia and another worker were rigging 20-metre polyethylene pipes to a crane before they were unloaded from the truck, when Mr Garcia was struck by a one-tonne pipe and fell four metres.
Process Minerals, which operates the Woodie Woodie fines treatment plant, pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to provide a safe working environment and was fined in Port Hedland Magistrates Court.
Department of Mines and Petroleum director of mines safety Andrew Chaplyn said on Monday that falls from heights were a major cause of death on mine sites despite being easily preventable.
"There was a genuine risk that workers could have been killed and it was only luck that the consequences were not much worse," he said. (note from me - there is that word 'luck' again...it was not luck but fate, as by this topic FATE)
"The workers were not provided with a safe system of work and were unnecessarily exposed to a serious hazard."
Mr Chaplyn said the decision sent an important message about ensuring safety on WA mine sites.
The charges resulted after Process Minerals was found to have failed to provide a procedure for workers to safely unload the pipes.
