Tradie crushed by a tonne of falling pallets at worksite incident west of Sydney

A tradesman has been crushed by a stack of pallets weighing about a tonne in a horror worksite accident west of Sydney.

Rescue crews worked to free a man from beneath one tonne of pallets that fell on him.

A tradesman was crushed by a falling stack of pallets weighing an estimated one tonne in a horror workplace accident this morning.
Several ambulance and police crews rushed to the Bond Crescent building site in Wetherill Park, west of Sydney, just after 10.30am.

The 24-year-old man suffered a serious leg injury and was briefly pinned beneath the debris, before paramedics cleared the pallets, which had fallen from a forklift.

The CareFlight rescue helicopter was called and landed in a vacant field near the site, with a specialist doctor and critical care paramedic providing treatment to the worker.

“Observation was continued by the CareFlight medical team as he was transported by road ambulance to Liverpool Hospital in a stable condition,” a CareFlight spokesperson said.

Rescue crews worked to free the man from beneath the pallets.

The CareFlight helicopter was dispatched to treat the man, before an ambulance took him to Liverpool Hospital.

SafeWork NSW will now investigate the incident.

It comes a little more than a week after an 18-year-old apprentice was killed when a massive scaffolding structure collapsed on him.

Christopher Cassaniti, 18, died in the freak accident at a Macquarie Park development site on April 1, sparking a major rescue operation.

The teen and another worker, a 39-year-old man, were standing beneath the 17m tall scaffolding and were trapped under the rubble of twisted steel and concrete.

Vision from the scene showed a tense stand-off between police and tradies, with one worker heard screaming “my brother is down there”.

Christopher Cassaniti who died after scaffolding fell on him in Sydney. Picture: Facebook

The Facebook footage showed police officers trying to calm workers down and yelling into a megaphone to maintain order after frantic tradesmen argued with cops, saying: “You’re wasting time. We need access”.

“Everybody, we need you guys to help us,” one officer can be heard saying in response.

However, one tradesman hit out saying: “We are helping. You’ve got a whole army here — we’re ready”.

Another police officer responds: “If we move the wrong piece more will collapse. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle”.

Rescue workers continued a “delicate” operation to free Mr Cassaniti but struggled to reach him due to the sheer amount of debris. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Macquarie Park building site where a scaffolding collapse claimed the life of an 18-year-old apprentice. Picture: Richard Dobson

Christopher Cassaniti was crushed to death in the collapse of a huge scaffolding structure.

CFMEU construction and general national secretary Dave Noonan said the death was caused by a “catastrophic failure of a scaffolding”.

It emerged yesterday that builders were warned that safety concerns were “starting to get ridiculous” in the months leading up to a teenager’s death, leaked emails have revealed.

An email from Synergy to Ganellen, sent on June 18, 2018, states:

“One raker tie on Building M level (used to brace the structure) has been removed. This seems to be a recurring theme and this is starting to get ridiculous. I’ve never had these issues on any site.”

Christopher Cassaniti died after scaffolding fell on him on a building site in Macquarie Park.

A further email, sent on September 28, 2018 by the scaffolding company, warned Ganellen’s safety officer about issues at the site.

“This is putting lives at risk and exposing my men to possible issues …”

The building company Ganellen, scaffolding company Synergy Scaffolding and the worksite are all now under investigation.