Box Hill crane death: company fined $400,000 in Melbourne County Court after workplace death

A crane company has been sentenced in a Melbourne court five years after a tragic accident resulted in the death of a Kilmore man.

Shaun Burns, 48, died when a crane dropped a load of cement onto him at a Box Hill worksite in 2018.

A Thomastown crane company has been fined $400,000 five years after the death of a labourer on a Box Hill worksite.

Clark Cranes fronted Melbourne County Court on February 28 to be sentenced after a guilty verdict in January.

The company was found guilty by jury of breaching occupational health and safety laws on January 31, following the death of Kilmore man Shaun Burns, 48, and injury of two other workers, one left a paraplegic.

Mr Burns died when more than a tonne of wet concrete fell from a crane on September 6 in 2018 at the Whitehorse Rd site in Box Hill.

Mr Burns was working in a pit as a general labourer when the crane dropped a load of concrete on him and two other workers.

The matter went to trial after the company pleaded not guilty to not ensuring the crane was safe and without risks to health.

Following the jury’s decision and almost a month of deliberation, the court heard Judge Gavan Meredith convict Clark Cranes on one charge of “failing to ensure the plant was safe and without risks to health”, and fined the company $400,000.

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