Council vacuum contractor blinded and eyelids ruptured wins compo

A Queensland council contractor who lost his sight in one eye and ruptured his eyelids when he suffered a blow to his face from a “violent” vacuum hose has won compensation.

The case played out in Townsville District Court.

A Queensland council contractor who lost his sight in one eye and ruptured his eyelids when he suffered a blow to his face from a “violent” vacuum hose has won compensation.

Leigh Bilson, was awarded $359,689 by Townsville District Court Judge John Coker in an 83-page decision handed down on April 5, following a four day hearing in July 2022.

On August 28, 2017 he lost the complete sight in his left eye and ruptured his eyelids when the 11.5m long hose from his vacuum truck “violently” escaped his hand and moved upwards striking him on the nose and to the left eye.

Mr Bilson told the court the hose was flung out of his hand and “did a 180” in the air, coming down on the bridge of his nose and his eye.

He was working as a vacuum truck operator for his employer, Vatsonic Communications Pty Ltd who had a contract with Townsville City Council to clean concrete pits within the storm and waste water system.

Vatsonic has been ordered to pay the damages of $359,689.

Judge Corker found Mr Bilson’s injuries arose directly from the performance of the task – the subject of the contractual arrangements between Vatsonic and the council – therefore arose directly out of the performance of the contract.

Mr Bilson, now 47, had worked in his job for over a year at the time of the accident and had not had any prior experience of the hose behaving violently, as it did on the morning of the incident.

Judge Coker found Mr Bilson would have sought and likely got a much higher-paying job in the mining industry if had he not been functionally blind in his left eye.