By Adam Cooper
Victoria’s Education Department faces being fined up to $3 million after pleading guilty to breaching safety laws over the death of a seven-year-old boy whose wheelchair fell from a school ramp.
Jovan Talwar suffered a fatal head injury when his wheelchair tipped off a ramp at Warringa Park School in Hoppers Crossing on November 26, 2018. He died four days later.
Warringa Park School in Hoppers Crossing.
Victoria’s workplace regulator, WorkSafe, charged the Department of Education and Training with workplace safety offences more than a year after Jovan’s death, arguing the ramp was either poorly constructed or had not been maintained. On Tuesday, the department pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to ensure people other than employees were not exposed to risk. One other charge was withdrawn.
Lucy Guthrie, from the department’s legal division, appeared before the court to plead guilty on the department’s behalf.
Jovan Talwar died after a fall at his school.
WorkSafe has argued in charge sheets the ramp was not compliant with safety requirements as it was not flush with the concrete underneath. The department had contracted out the building of the ramp.
Charge sheets also say the school should not have allowed a student teacher to supervise Jovan being moved from a classroom and that the failure to instruct and train teachers of students’ mobility requirements placed the boy “at risk of death or serious injury”.
Warringa Park is a school for students with disabilities.
Each of the charges carries a maximum penalty of 9000 units, which equates to about $1.49 million per charge.
The department previously argued the case should be heard by a magistrate, rather than in the higher County Court, in an attempt to keep the penalties down.
Magistrates can impose a maximum fine of 2500 penalty units, about $413,000, per charge.
Magistrate Pauline Spencer in January ruled the case should be heard by a County Court judge given its seriousness.
Another magistrate, Donna Bakos, on Tuesday referred the case to the County Court for a plea hearing on November 19.
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