New Royal Adelaide Hospital construction site was safe despite death of worker Jorge Castillo Riffo, inquest told
SAFETY during construction of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital was adequate despite the only risk control for a worker using a scissor lift was that he not make a mistake, an inquest has heard.
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SAFETY during construction of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital was adequate despite the only risk control for a worker using a scissor lift was that he not make a mistake, an inquest has heard.
Jorge Castillo-Riffo, 54, was working alone when he was fatally crushed between the scissor lift and a concrete slab while completing patching work in November 2014.
When questioned whether the “only risk control against overhead crushing was relying on Mr Castillo-Riffo not to make a mistake”, Hansen Yuncken Leighton Contractors operations director Constantine Kerpiniodis said “I accept that”.
But he disagreed when asked if the “site safety system was not solid or of a high standard”. He said the system worked on paper “but not in practice in this instance”.
“I do agree that the system worked,” Mr Kerpiniodis said.
“It was very robust and it was above industry standard.”
HYLC construction director David Maytom also gave evidence on Tuesday, telling the court the site’s safety was adequate.
Lawyers for Mr Castillo-Riffo’s long-term partner Pam Gurner-Hall asked Mr Maytom if he agreed the project was not completed safely.
“That's a difficult question to answer,” he said.
“Are we happy that Jorge died? Obviously not, and that's a failing.
“It doesn’t mean the safety wasn’t appropriate on the project.”
Mr Maytom, who gave evidence via telephone from a hotel lobby in Spain, also told the court no formal investigation into Mr Castillo Riffo’s death was conducted, despite it being required in the project’s safety management plan.
Instead, he said there was “a review of the information we had” which was used to introduce a “minimum standard” that scissor lift operators were not working alone.
The court heard HYLC employees were unable to agree on who was the responsible safety supervisor for the work Mr Castillo-Riffo was doing, and no safety method statement had been completed for the high risk work he was doing,
Outside court Ms Gurner-Hall said numerous media reports at the time pointed out major issues and concerns even before Mr Castillo-Riffos death.
“To be able to come out and say that there was no issue with safety on the site is just ludicrous,” she said.
“How they got away with not more deaths on that site is beyond me. There were two.”
She hopes State Coroner Mr Johns, who is presiding over the inquest, will deliver findings and recommendations which improve how worksites conduct their safety processes, along with measures to improve the design, use and safety of scissor lifts to prevent future deaths.
“(Mr John’s) is the one with a whole lot of power to make the recommendations that goes some way to preventing that kind of thing from happening again,” she said.