Royal Park Salvage Pty Ltd convicted and fined $140,000 after excavator collided with power lines

A construction company has copped a massive fine after an excavator operator struck power lines on a demolition site, with the decision serving as a warning for other contractors.

A business has been fined after an excavator hit power lines on a demolition site.

An Adelaide construction company has been convicted and handed a major fine after an excavator operator struck power lines on a demolition site – with SafeWork SA condemning the business for risking the worker’s life.

In December 2022, an excavator operated by an employee of Royal Park Salvage Pty Ltd was engaged to demolish a property on Onkara Ave in Ingle Farm.

He was required to remove “a number of trees from the front yard of the property, which were underneath a 415V powerline”.

SafeWork SA said that despite a “spotter” for the excavation work failing to arrive at the property, the employee, who had been working at the company for 25 years, began removing the shrubs.

At 7.10am, the excavator he was operating made contact with overhead powerlines – severing one of them – but he was unaware until a nearby resident alerted him.

SA Power Networks and emergency services were called to the scene to make sure the area was safe, with SafeWork SA also at the site investigating.

The excavator struck power lines, leaving 84 homes without power.

Royal Park Salvage was subsequently issued with two improvement notices before legal action was taken against them.

In sentencing the business in the South Australian Employment Tribunal on Tuesday following a SafeWork SA prosecution, Deputy President Lieschke said Royal Park Salvage’s “existing safety management system was grossly inadequate”.

“The result is that an operator was allowed to take serious risks of suffering extreme harm from having to work near live powerlines,” Mr Lieschke said.

“The known risk of death or serious injury from downing a live powerline was luckily not realised with no one injured, although there was significant property damage and supply interruptions to many neighbours.

“However, it is the risk of injury and not the occurrence of an actual injury that is the main consideration.”

Mr Lieschke recorded a conviction against Royal Park Salvage Pty Ltd and fined them $140,000 along with other costs.

SafeWork SA Executive Director Glenn Farrell said the incident could “so easily have had tragic consequences for the excavator operator”.

“It serves as a warning to all contractors working around live powerlines,” he said.

“The company failed to provide a safe system of work that exposed their worker to a risk of electrocution.”

Originally published as Royal Park Salvage Pty Ltd convicted and fined $140,000 after excavator collided with power lines