Springvale service station operator to go on trial over car wash death

The death of an elderly man inside a Springvale automatic car wash has sent a service station operator to trial.

The operator of a service station in Springvale will go to trial over the death of an elderly man inside an automatic car wash.

A service station operator charged over the death of an elderly man who was crushed inside an automatic car wash has been ordered to stand trial.

The 73-year-old Mulgrave man died in 2019 after he became trapped while trying to get back into his car after the wash cycle had started, with service station operator Chevron Australia Downstream Fuels charged by WorkSafe over the incident.

According to WorkSafe Victoria, on the morning of November 25 the man drove into the car wash at a Springvale petrol station before getting out to re-enter an access code.

As the man attempted to get back into his car, he was crushed when the wash cycle started and his car door was struck by a gantry.

He died in hospital from his injuries three days later.

Magistrate Brett Sonnet committed the service station operator to trial on May 31 on one charge of failure to ensure so far as reasonably practicable that the workplace was safe, as the organisation in control of the site of the incident, due to a lack of signage.

The company also faced three more charges over lack of anti-collision bars, failing to remove brackets and not installing boom gate, but Magistrate Sonnet there was insufficient evidence for these charges to be heard by a jury.

“The prosecution case has not been put on the basis that there was a causal breach … as a result of the relevant breaches that caused the death of the deceased,” he said.

The court heard that the car wash was manufactured in Europe, where automatic car washes do not allow customers to remain inside the vehicle for safety.

“The operation manual (from the manufacturer) clearly states that people are not to be in the car wash during the operation of the machine,” the court heard.

“The accused’s company had the manual. the safety advice in the manual states people are not to be in the car when the machine is operating … for a reason, it is dangerous for them to be in a car wash.

“We don’t know necessarily how all the other car washes are set up … we know in Europe, people cannot physically be in their cars in the car wash.

“The likelihood of something like this occurring is increased in the Australian market where people get in their cars and are allowed to remain in their cars while the car wash is operational.

The prosecution argued the signal systems in place at the Springvale car wash were “confusing”.

“There is a lack of any warning for users to remain in their car during the car wash, there is a confusing traffic light system that operates at this particular car wash … green is always on regardless of whether you've put the wrong code in or not.”

“It’s the accused responsibility to walk around the car wash and proactively assess what can go wrong.”

But the defence for Chevron Australia argued that the risk of serious injury or death was “not obvious”, as this was the first instance on record of a death occurring in an automatic car wash.

“If the accused does not know of a risk and cannot reasonably have been expected to know about it, they can’t be reasonably practicable to take any steps at all in relation to it.

“It's inherently unlikely to have materialised.”

“This incident was of course a tragic accident … this was an extremely remote and freak incident that actually occurred.”

A representative for Chevron Australia pleaded not guilty to the singular charge, with the matter set to return to court on June 29.