SA records highest number of workplace deaths in past financial year as grieving families remember their loved ones

Brynn Ingrames left his job in warehousing to work outside – now his family is heartbroken with grief, as SA hits a chilling new workplace record.

Leanne Ingrames was asleep when she received the phone call that shattered her family.

Her beloved husband Brynn, the father of their two children, was killed when a wall at a Barossa Valley demolition site collapsed on him.

Brynn was one of 26 people who died in workplace incidents last financial year – the highest number ever recorded in South Australia and double the number of the previous year. The soaring toll – which included victims ranging in age from 2 to 96 – has the state’s workplace regulator “deeply concerned”.

Brynn had only been working in construction for a few weeks, having switched careers because he wanted to feel more freedom and spend more time outdoors, after two decades working in logistics and at warehouses.

Leanne Ingrames was asleep when she received a call informing her that her husband had died in a workplace accident leaving behind two children Hayley and Jack. Picture: Tim Joy

Leanne was at their home in Owen sleeping off an early work shift when Brynn’s new manager Malcolm called.

“I didn’t answer the first call, but he phoned straight back,” Ms Ingrames said.

“He just said there’s been an accident. They’re flying him to hospital. He’s been crushed by a wall.

“My son was home at the time and we just got in the car and started driving towards the hospital. Someone phoned back and told me to pull over, because it wasn’t good news.

“That’s when they told me that he’d passed, on the side of the road.”

It was a tragic end to a relationship that began when they were lovestruck teenagers.

Brynn Ingrames’ devastated daughter

Brynn’s 19-year-old daughter Hayley Ingrames was at university on a lunch break.

Her phone was set to ‘do not disturb’ because an essay was due, and when she checked it she saw “about 10 missed calls” from Leanne and her 21-year-old brother Jack.

Her dad had already passed away by the time she called back.

“He was always such a safe person, preached about safety in or out of work, so it was just a shock that this would happen to him,” Hayley said.

“He was very loud – not in an obnoxious way. He knew how to make a joke. When he would enter a room, everyone’s face lit up.

“It is just a really big absence. It’s just devastating.”

Brynn Ingrames with daughter Hayley, wife Leanne and son Jack. Brynn was killed in a workplace incident at Nuriootpa. Picture: Supplied

One of Brynn’s sisters, Melanie Worrall, said on top of the family’s grief, Leanne had been forced to confront the loss of a second income and multiple “layers of bureaucracy”.

If Brynn had been only injured, the family would usually already be receiving payments through ReturnToWork SA – but because he died, the process of determining the claim takes longer and entitlements have not yet been received.

Meanwhile, SafeWorkSA is still investigating the circumstances of Brynn’s death – a process that often takes years.

“Leanne’s lost her soulmate, and those two kids have lost their dad,” Ms Worrall said.

“At one of the worst periods of time in Leanne’s life, she’s had to source somebody to give her support because of the layers of bureaucracy that she’s working with.”

Tragedy turned Andrea Madeley toward the law

That person is Adelaide lawyer Andrea Madeley, who went through law school in her 50s to help families in Leanne’s situation, after she lost her own son Daniel in a 2004 workplace incident.

“It’s tough stuff (even) for a lawyer,” Ms Madeley said. “If you are not experienced or you don’t have somebody you can lean on, it’s really, really complex, difficult, confusing.

Ashley Koch, 38, died at Elizabeth South after he was trapped by machinery. Picture: Port Wakefield Bowling Club

“And all the while you’ve got people trying to get their head around a truly traumatic event. It is an absolute nightmare. I would say they would have to have a lawyer just to make sure that they’ve got all their entitlements coming to them.”

She recently met with the Attorney-General to discuss making the system easier for families.

Ms Madeley said workplace deaths were “almost always really traumatic events”.

“I don’t know of any workers that have died peacefully in an incident like that,” she said.

“The trauma of somebody being suffocated – we had the Gladstone explosion, we have people getting trapped, crushed – it’s an awful thing for loved ones to get their minds around.

That’s one of the unique features of a workplace fatality. The other one is this barrage of legal stuff that they have to work out.”

SA’s shocking workplace deaths record

Of the 26 people who died in workplace incidents in the 2024–25 financial year, the highest number (eight) worked in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector. Just four were female.

The figure doubled the previous year’s 13 workplace deaths. The previous highest number on record had been 24 in 2005–06.

Nine of the deaths involved being struck by or falling from a vehicle, including the death of two women, aged 44 and 64, in a multi-vehicle crash on the Fleurieu Peninsula in November.

Deaths of people in the general public – not just workers – are counted by SafeWork SA as a workplace death if the actions of a worker directly contributed.

Lachlan Carslake with his mother Louise Standfield. He was killed at Nylastex Engineering Solutions last year. Picture: Facebook

The passing of two-year-old Kyrie Horspool, who was tragically struck by a car at Tyrepower Elizabeth, is included in the year’s tally.

SafeWork SA executive director Glenn Farrell said he was “deeply concerned” about the spike in workplace deaths.

“We’re inspecting more work sites more often and where we find noncompliance, action is taken,” he said.

It is coming up to a year since the death of Lachlan Carslake, 28, who suffered a fatal injury in July 2024 while operating machinery at Nylastex Engineering Solutions in Edwardstown. His mother, Louise Standfield, is dreading the milestone. “It shouldn’t have bloody happened,” she said.

“It shouldn’t happen at work. I want my son back. That’s all I want.”

Originally published as SA records highest number of workplace deaths in past financial year as grieving families remember their loved ones