Man killed in workplace accident in Tivendale

UPDATE: NT WorkSafe investigators are this morning at a Tivendale work site trying to piece together what happened after a man was killed there yesterday.

Police investigate the scene of a fatal workplace accident at Tivendale on Monday evening. PICTURE Will Zwar

UPDATE: NT WorkSafe investigators are this morning at the work site trying to piece together what happened. Investigators spent several hours at the Tivendale site yesterday afternoon.

The man was believed to have been crushed to death in a horrific workplace accident about

3pm.

Paramedics were called to the Wishart Rd site after it is understood the man, 30, who was helping to guide a bucket on to a digger excavator, was crushed.

NT WorkSafe investigators’ car at the Tivendale site. Picture: Keri Megelus

It is understood the man, who had family in Katherine, may have been hidden by the bucket when the digger operator moved the heavy machinery.

The man was declared dead upon arrival, St John Ambulance spokesman Craig Garraway said. “He was killed instantly, there was nothing we could do when we got there.”

NT Police last night declined to comment on the death but were still at the scene. It is understood they were still working to contact next of kin late yesterday.

Police investigate the scene on Monday evening. Picture: Will Zwar

The death occurred just hours after workers came together to commemorate Workers’ Memorial Day in Raintree Park.

At the park, union members remembered those killed in accidents on the job.

In February, Derick Suratin was killed in an electrical accident at the Tennant Creek Fire Station and, in a separate incident, a Darwin man was crushed by a 1.5 tonne electrical switchboard at the construction site of the new Palmerston Police Station.

IN OTHER NEWS

WorkSafe Australia statistics for 2017 show the NT was the most dangerous place to work, and workers were more likely to be killed at work to the tune of 255 per cent, compared to the next worst state or territory. Compared to the safest place to work, the ACT, Territorians were 1275 per cent more likely to be killed at work.

In a recent opinion piece for the Sunday Territorian, Unions NT general secretary Joel Bowden said the statistics were “damning” and something “had to change”.

“Regulators, employers, work ers and unions must commit to changing the safety culture in the NT because no one deserves to go to work and be hurt, and no one should be killed at work,” Mr Bowden wrote.