BMD Constructions Pty Ltd

Incident

In the early hours of 30 April 2016, a 43 year old male was killed when his motorbike crashed into the traffic diversion setup as part of the Tiger Brennan Drive duplication.

Alleged breach

It was alleged that BMD Constructions Pty Ltd failed to comply with health and safety duties under Sections 32 of the Work Health Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011 (the Act) and its obligations under the Work Health Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Regulations.

Summary of work health and safety undertakings

An undertaking given by BMD Constructions Pty Ltd in relation to the alleged contraventions has been accepted by the Regulator as an enforceable undertaking under Part 11 of the Act. BMD Constructions Pty Ltd has committed to a range of activities to improve health and safety in the workplace and deliver health and safety initiatives to the wider community. These activities include:

• Develop and deliver safety training and awareness packages for the BMD workforce in conjunction with industry specialists focusing on:
  • Silicosis in the construction industry;
  • Mental health and well-being; and
  • Exercising Due Diligence.
• Amended and refined the Silicosis and Due Diligence training packages and present to the wider industry via subject matter experts during appropriate events such as Safe Work Month.
• Engage with Vocational Education and Training providers to deliver the Silicosis safety training and awareness package to young workers, trainees and apprentices.
• Development and roll-out of traffic management training courses to the construction industry which will include an e-learning package. This will fill a current gap and is focused towards construction sites that interact with traffic.
• Provide a specific manager to manage these projects throughout the life of the enforceable undertaking.
• Provide funds to upskill existing and new construction workers (with an emphasis on training young workers) to undertake the Work Zone Traffic Controller (WZ2) qualification.

The amount spent on work health and safety activities following the incident was approximately $30,000 (not included below).

The financial commitment of the activities proposed in the undertaking are:

• workers or the workplace – $155,000;
• industry - $130,000, and
• the community - $20,000.

The financial commitments to the undertaking have a total minimum expenditure of $305,000.

Reasons for regulator acceptance

The regulator accepted the enforceable undertaking under section 216 of the Act and is satisfied that this undertaking offers significant and ongoing commitments to achieve improved work health and safety outcomes and compliance beyond what is required by the law. The regulator believes the enforceable undertaking offers a similar deterrent to a successful legal proceeding and will result in a tangible improvement to safety in the workplace, industry and in the Darwin community.

NT WorkSafe has commenced monitoring the enforceable undertaking to ensure the activities are implemented and will continue to do so until the undertaking is completely discharged.