Cassaniti family begs that son’s scaffold death not be in vain

Questions raised after falling scaffolding crushed two men, killing 18-year-old Christopher Cassaniti.

Joe Cassaniti speaks to media. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Questions have been raised over the construction company Ganellen working on the site where up to 17m of falling scaffolding crushed two men on Monday, killing Christopher Cassaniti, who had turned 18 just days earlier.

The national secretary of the construction union, Dave Noonan­, said the accident was particularly tragic because of the young man’s age.

Mr Noonan said if regulations had been followed to the letter, it would not have happened.

“We see non-conformance scaffolding every day,’’ he said. “There is huge commercial pressure on construction sites to hurry work up, shortcuts are sometimes taken, and in many cases profits are put ahead of safety.’’

He could not talk specifically about the “catastroph­ic” accident at Macquarie Park, in Sydney’s northwest, but said scaffolding which had been built according to regulations did not fall down.

Christopher Cassaniti, left, with his family.

Mr Cassaniti’s uncle, Joe Cassaniti, read out a statement from the family and begged that his nephew did not become “just another­ statis­tic”.

“We ask that the government step in and take immediate action and implement stringent measures regarding safety on construction sites,” he said.

SafeWork NSW has launched an investigation into Monday’s accident. “SafeWork NSW will carry out an exhaustive investi­gation into the cause of this ­incident,” a spokeswoman said. Environmental factors, design, construction, maintenance and the loads the structure may have supported would all be taken into consideration.

“It is expected the investigation could take some time as SafeWork inspectors work through the complexitie­s of the incident,” the spokeswoman said.

Ganellen put out a statement which read: “The death of (Mr Cassaniti) was a tragic incident. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family, co-workers and friends and continue to offer them assistance in any way we can.’’

The company declined to answe­r questions.

The aftermath of the accident was captured in horrifying detail in a video taken at the scene.

As police tried in vain to keep distraught friends and colleagues from helping, one man called out: “That’s my brother — my brother’s down there.”

“If we move the wrong thing more will collapse, it’s like a jigsaw puzzle,” a police officer told constructio­n workers.

The scaffolding collapsed just after noon on Monday.

The collapsed scaffolding at Sydney’s Macquarie Park. Picture: Toby Zerna

By 1pm, a 39-year-old man had been freed from the wreckage.

Mr Cassaniti, an apprentice for contracting firm Future Form, was not pulled out until 3pm, when he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mary-Jane Schwenke, whose husband has worked in construction and scaffolding for 12 years and was working on a site next door to the accident, also posted a tribute to the young man. She said it was a tragedy but was part of a bigger problem of unsafe practices for construction workers.

“I do worry about my husband coming home some nights and I hope this young boy’s life isn’t going to be in vain and things are going to change,” Ms Schwenke told The Australian.

“There is a culture of, if no one sees it, then do it.”

Fred Schwenke, on the site next door to the accident, spent the morning again going through safety procedures in the wake of the fatal incident.

According to his wife, Mr Schwenke had attended many sites with wonky scaffolding, which he would work on until it was safe. He warned that other companies were not as rigorous.