Sec Shed Constructions Pty Ltd pleads guilty to electrical safety breach
A Qld shed building company has been slugged with a five-figure fine after a roofer suffered severe burns from a nearby overhead powerline.
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A Caboolture shed building company has been slugged with a five-figure fine after a roofer installing gutter guarding suffered severe burns from a nearby overhead powerline.
Sec Shed Construction Pty Ltd and director Brenton Bassett pleaded guilty in Gympie Magistrates Court on Thursday for breaching the state’s Electrical Safety Act by exposing workers to the risk of injury or death.
Office of Work Health and Safety prosecutor Tom Ward told the court Sec Shed Constructions had been hired by a Super Fund in 2021, to build the prefabricated shed on a Curra property which had a 7.8m-high powerline running across it.
The Act requires a 3m exclusion zone around live powerlines.
Mr Ward said workers on the job during its construction in July 2021 were carrying conductive materials in the vicinity of the wire but fortunately no incidents occurred.
This changed on October 21, 2021, when the shed’s owner brought a roofer in to install gutter guarding.
Mr Ward said the tradie received an electrical shock by being in proximity to the powerline, which was only 1.4m above the shed’s roof.
He suffered severe burns, requiring surgical skin grafts, as well as a loss of balance and eyesight problems.
The roofer said in a victim impact statement submitted to the court the pain “never really goes away”.
Sec Shed Construction’s lawyer told the court the company accepted its responsibility in the incident.
However, he said it came about due to failures from several other people involved in the development of the shed to identify the risk the powerline posed.
The court heard a workplace health and safety report on the block before Sec Shed Construction was engaged did not identify any overhead powerlines as a risk.
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The initial location of the shed on the block would have had the overhead line running through the structure instead of at its edge, and when Sec Shed Construction was brought in the foundations for the shed had already been laid.
Sec Shed Construction was told when engaged for the job the powerline was “de-energised” but accepted it should have conducted its own investigations including contacting Ergon Energy to confirm this, the court heard.
He said there were “missed opportunities the entire way along”.
Magistrate Bevan Hughes acknowledged the company had no criminal history and was a small “community minded” business which sponsored a local sports team.
It was an “isolated” incident for the company, Mr Hughes said.
He fined Sec Shed Constructions $80,000 and ordered no conviction be recorded.
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