Onkar Group, Maninder Singh Nagi front County Court for WorkSafe charges

A man worked 17 consecutive days driving a delivery van from Melbourne to Albury and back overnight leading up to a fatal collision in Kialla West, a court has heard.

A Keysborough logistics company’s conduct placed a subcontractor at risk while driving as a result of levels of fatigue.

A man worked 17 consecutive days driving a delivery van from Melbourne to Albury and back overnight in the lead up to a fatal collision in Kialla West, a court has heard.

Keysborough logistics company Onkar Group Pty Ltd and its director Maninder Singh Nagi pleaded guilty in Shepparton County Court on Thursday to failing to ensure employees and people other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks.

The company also pleaded guilty to recklessly engaging in conduct that placed another person at a workplace in danger of serious injury.

Rohallah Khashee, 27, was a subcontracted delivery driver employed to complete the ‘Albury Run’ which involved 18 to 24 deliveries starting from Oakleigh South with a final delivery in either Shepparton or Benalla on return from Albury.

The estimated driving time of the route is almost 11 hours.

On August 17, 2022 Mr Khashee made his first delivery about 12.40am and a final delivery in Shepparton 12 hours later on his return from Albury.

Rohallah Khashee veered into an oncoming lane and crashed into a truck near on the Goulburn Valley Highway near Moira Dr on August 17, 2022.

About 12.50am he was travelling on the Goulburn Valley Highway when he veered across solid double white lines and collided with a truck.

Mr Khashee died as a result of the crash and the truck driver was uninjured.

WorkSafe inspectors attended the workplace and believed Onkar failed to provide a system for fatigue management of delivery drivers and issued improvement notices.

A statement written by Mr Khashee’s wife Somaia Khashee was read to the court.

She said the impact of his death was “devastating”.

“Our world has been shattered, the grief is unbearable,” she said.

Onkar Group and its director Maninder Singh Nagi appeared in Shepparton County Court to plead guilty to WorkSafe charges.

Defence counsel for the company, Dermott Connors, said Onkar should and could have “done better”.

He said since the crash the company had installed GPS and dashcams in all vehicles and contracted a company to provide daily data about drivers’ rest periods.

“The company took the best option and responded way over and above what WorkSafe notices would have required of them,” he said.

Mr Connors said the company’s prospects of reoffending were “very low”.

Judge Daniel Holding said the company had done “more than the minimum” to ensure the same “absolute tragedy” did not occur again.

“You only have to know the details of the Albury run to know you can’t have one person doing it day after day without there being significant problems,” he said.

The plea is expected to continue in Melbourne County Court on August 4.