Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics

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 the NT Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics (DIPL) failed to comply with health and safety duties under Sections 32 of the Work Health Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Act (the Act) and its obligations under the Work Health Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Regulations.

Summary of work health and safety undertaking

An undertaking given by DIPL in relation to the alleged contraventions has been accepted by the Regulator as an enforceable undertaking under Part 11 of the Act.
DIPL 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:

• Employ dedicated staff in Road Operations to ensure better scrutiny of sub-contractor’s traffic management plans and guidance schemes in an auditing capacity;
• Upskill DIPL staff who deal with construction contracts with respect to better understanding legal obligations;
• Establish a Panel Contract for Auditing of Work Zone Traffic Management by independent WZ1 accredited road safety auditors;
• Review and update permit requirements and standards specification for Road construction and maintenance in relation to barriers, line marking removal, night lighting and positioning of variable message signs to improve clarity and safety for road users;
• Implement campaigns to improve road safety and awareness at traffic management locations;
• Fund a driving through roadwork zones module for the DriveAbout app and a learner-licensing app designed to help new road users pass the Learner Permit test.

The amount spent on work health and safety activities following the incident was approximately $273,000 (not included below).

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

• workers or the workplace – $520,810;
• industry - $672,400, and
• the community - $160,000.

The financial commitments to the undertaking have a total minimum expenditure of $1,353,210.

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.