Coroner demands overhaul of workplace safety laws
APPRENTICE toolmaker and avid car lover Daniel Madeley was in the prime of his life when he was killed in a horrific workplace accident.
APPRENTICE toolmaker and avid car lover Daniel Madeley was in the prime of his life when he was killed in a horrific workplace accident.
After more than six years of legal battles, Mr Madeley's heartbroken mother, Andrea Madeley, has added another ally in her quest to strengthen South Australia's workplace safety laws State Coroner Mark Johns.
In a scathing report released yesterday, Mr Johns said: "It is extremely disturbing that SafeWork SA failed to carry out an audit following Mr Madeley's death for nearly six years, and only then at the same time as an inquest was started.
"I simply cannot understand how such a workplace existed in South Australia in 2004, bearing in mind the existence of SafeWork SA and its various predecessors, and the Workcover Corporation, which also takes an interest."
He said the death of Mr Madeley, 18, at Diemould Tooling Services on June 5, 2004, was "entirely preventable".
Mr Madeley was crushed to death when his dust coat became entangled in an unguarded, 40-year-old boring machine, built in the USSR.
Mr Johns said: "A horizontal boring machine had been operated at Diemould for years in a condition which could only be described as deplorably unsafe. It could have been guarded, but was not. It could have had a braking system, but did not. It could have had an automated lubrication system, but did not.
"Many other things could have been done, but any one of these would have been sufficient to save Mr Madeley's life.
"It (an audit) could have commenced in June 2004 but it was not until this inquest was about to be commenced (last year) that a compliance project was actually conducted."
He said the conditions belonged in the 1950s and not the modern age, where occupational health and safety had become a key part of the workplace.
"Mr Madeley's death was preventable. A regime of proper inspection by SafeWork SA ... (might) have identified such an obviously unsafe machine ... and prevented its further use," Mr Johns said.
Mrs Madeley said the process (since her son's death) "has just about killed me, but this has to be the most positive thing that has come out of the whole process."
She would never find closure over her son's death, but the Coroner's findings did support her crusade for better workplace practices. "SafeWork SA is not doing enough, pull your finger out," she said outside court.
"Let's not wait until someone dies, let's be proactive, not reactive." Since her son's death, Ms Madeley has set up Voices for Industrial Death, an organisation that fights for workers' safety rights.
In 2009, Diemould was fined $72,000 in the Industrial Court a third of the cost of replacing the horizontal borer after pleading guilty to a breach of workplace safety laws.
Mr Johns also called for "major reform" to the current system of criminal prosecution for fatal industrial accidents. "In my opinion, it is just plain wrong that the prosecution of Diemould took five years to arrive at a plea of guilty. There must be a way to improve that," Mr Johns said.
Industrial Relations Minister Bernard Finnigan said he would need to read the Coroner's findings before any action was taken.
"I take seriously the need to avoid industrial deaths and I trust the Coroner's findings will be of assistance in this regard," he said.
During the inquest into Mr Madeley's death, there were suggestions some of the Diemould employees testimonies had been "coached" by the company in order to avoid responsibility for the accident.
Mrs Madeley said it was "symbolic" of the way Diemould had handled her son's death.
"They should just tell the truth, they should not have to be forced to court to do it," she said.
"If you make mistakes and apologise you can understand that.
"It was always about their (Diemould) legal responsibility."
A Safe Work SA spokesman said it was reviewing the findings and would make a statement at a later date.