Gosford: Civil 1 Pty Ltd fined $90,000 for breaching stop work order after scaffolding collapse

A demolition company that was found not guilty of negligence when a 60m-long section of scaffolding collapsed onto dozens of cars has been fined for continuing to operate despite a stop work order.

A demolition company that was found not guilty of negligence when a 60m-long section of scaffolding collapsed onto dozens of cars has been fined for continuing to operate despite a stop work order.

Civil 1 Pty Ltd was the principal contractor for the demolition of nine commercial buildings including the old Union Hotel at 108-118A Mann St, Gosford.

About 3pm on August 19, 2020, a 60m-long section of scaffolding, which had been left unsecured for more than 24 hours, was hit by a strong wind and toppled onto dozens of cars and injured a pedestrian.

SafeWork NSW took Civil 1 Pty Ltd to the NSW District Court where the demolition company was charged with two counts of breaching its duty of care under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and one count of failing to comply with a prohibition notice.

Civil 1 pleaded not guilty to the three charges and faced an eight-day trial earlier this year before Judge Andrew Scotting who found Civil 1 not guilty of the two counts of breaching its duty of care but guilty of carrying out demolition works a week after it was slapped with a prohibition notice.

Scaffolding accident on Mann St in Gosford has seen eight cars and one ute crushed. Picture: Fiona Killman

While Judge Scotting found the scaffolding had been left unsecured for more than a day the demolition contractor had not breached its health and safety requirements because it was not “reasonably practical” to prevent the mishap.

However Judge Scotting found Civil 1 guilty of breaching the stop work order after one of the building inspectors, who had issued the company a prohibition order, looked out of his window of the SafeWork NSW offices across the road a week later and saw Civil 1 operating an excavator.

The scaffolding came down in a gust of high wind. Picture: Fiona Killman

The court heard an inspector attended the site the day after the scaffolding collapse and was concerned about how Civil 1 would demolish the rest of a concrete slab close to Mann St using excavators without creating a risk of flying debris.

At the time the scaffold had been replaced with temporary cyclone wire fencing along Mann St that was not covered with any protective meshing, posing a risk to pedestrians walking past.

The inspector issued a stop work order for all demolition within 9m of the boundary.

A week later the inspector was in the SafeWork NSW offices across the road when he looked out a window and saw two excavators using a hammer attachment to break up the concrete slab too close to the footpath.

Judge Scotting described the breach as brazen and carried out for “convenience” with disregard for public safety.

The scaffolding also brought down a street light pole. Civil 1 was found not guilty over the collapse but guilty of breaching a stop work order. Picture: Fiona Killman

“The breach occurred in close proximity to the SafeWork NSW office and in the circumstances was somewhat flagrant,” he said in his judgement.

“I infer that the prohibition notice was breached because it suited the convenience of the offender to carry out the work at that time.”

Judge Scotting fined the demolition company $90,000 and ordered it to pay SafeWork’s court costs.

Originally published as Gosford: Civil 1 Pty Ltd fined $90,000 for breaching stop work order after scaffolding collapse