JMA Engineering Pty Ltd’s slapped with record fine after catalogue of safety issues killed apprentice in tank crushing

A Riverland manufacturing company has been slapped with a record fine over its reckless failure to protect an apprentice who was crushed to death at work.

Boilermaker trainee Jake Fuss, 27, died after a more than three tonne stainless steel tank toppled onto him from a gantry crane. Picture: Facebook

A Riverland manufacturing company has been slapped with a record fine over its reckless failure to protect an apprentice who was crushed to death at work.

Boilermaker trainee Jake Fuss, 27, died after a more than three tonne stainless steel tank toppled on him from a gantry crane at JMA Engineering Pty Ltd’s Berri manufacturing plant in February 2021.

Mr Fuss, a father of one who moved to Renmark from Adelaide seven years prior, died instantly after a catastrophic cable failure on the crane, which the company had used for almost 30 years.

The SA Employment Court on Friday convicted the steel manufacturing business, founded in 1988, and fined it a record $840,000 after it pleaded guilty to the most serious category 1 workplace health and safety watchdog charges.

Mr Fuss, who moved to Renmark from Adelaide seven years prior to the 2021 incident, died instantly. Picture: Bradley Mannion

The firm’s production manager, David Pahl, was fined $12,000 over his failure to address safety flaws and repeatedly ignoring warnings.

A SafeWork SA investigation found crane cable damage was identified and repaired twice in the four weeks before Mr Fuss died while working on a $3m order.

An offer to service the crane two months before was also ignored.

In his 20 page Judgement published on Monday, Deputy President Judge Miles Crawley criticised “a number of troubling aspects to the facts of this case”.

Construction required tanks to be suspended from an overhead crane as welding occurred in and around the tank frame.

A basement trapdoor usually protected workers but the company’s practice was to bypass a safety ramp.

A SafeWork SA investigation found crane cable damage was identified and repaired twice in the four weeks before Mr Fuss died. Picture: Facebook

SA Employment Court on Friday convicted JMA Engineering Pty Ltd and fined it a record $840,000. Picture: Facebook

An unrelated 2019 workplace injury should have put it on notice that its rules needed reviewing yet less than two years later” nothing had been learned” and warnings to a tragedy ignored.

“It is obvious that should a tank fall whilst a worker was underneath it the consequences were almost certain to be fatal,” he ruled.

He said it was the firm’s responsibility “to take all reasonable steps” to ensure tanks didn’t fall and if it did no one was underneath.

Paige Allan, the mother of Mr Fuss’ son, said: “After a lengthy process we are happy there is finally an outcome where responsibility is being taken by the guilty parties.

“Jake’s death is obviously never going to be something that can be redeemed but the Judge in this case was thoughtful and showed compassion for our impact statement.

“He saw clearly that this was more than a simple accident that could happen to anyone.

“We are thankful that Jake had people in his corner, that this can’t happen to anyone else, and that SA won’t stand for workplace safety negligence.”

SafeWork SA Executive Director Glenn Farrell said a record fine “should send a strong message that reckless behaviour that exposes workers to the risk of death will be punished accordingly”.

“The culture of the workplace had become complacent to the risk of harm, that a life was

unnecessarily lost,” he said outside court.

“A lost life that could very easily have been avoided had the safety of workers been a priority to the business.”

The company did not respond to inquiries while Mr Fuss’ family declined to comment.

Originally published as JMA Engineering Pty Ltd’s slapped with record fine after catalogue of safety issues killed apprentice in tank crushing