Newstead contractor who crushed man's pelvis with excavator fined thousands

Mark Grima, 58, was handed a $55,000 fine for failing to comply with a health and safety duty on May 1 after being found guilty of the offence in the Launceston Magistrates Court on April 15, 2024.

This was a category two breach, the second-most serious kind as it exposed the injured man to the risk of death, serious injury or illness.

The incident happened at Longford in 2020 when Grima agreed to let the other man - a plumbing contractor - use his Kobelco excavator, which required the machine's control layout to be swapped.

One day later, Grima started the machine without switching the control scheme back, and the plumber was against the wall of a trench he was working in by the excavator's bucket.

Magistrate Simon Brown said in April Grima failed to follow "abundantly clear" steps to avoid the incident, which left the plumber with a broken pelvis and unable to get out of bed let alone work.

Speaking after the fine was handed down, work health and safety regulator Robyn Pearce said such incidents were far too common on Tasmanian job sites.

She reminded all those who worked on sites with heavy machinery to follow workplace health and safety guidelines.

"WorkSafe Tasmania inspectors have seen too many incidents lately involving mobile plant operators not taking care when operating their equipment around workers, and not maintaining safe exclusion zones," Ms Pearce said.

"Operators must not operate mobile plant in a way that puts other workers at risk. They must ensure workers are not near machinery when it is being operated.

"Workers in the vicinity of mobile plant must also take care and not get distracted around mobile plant.

"'Employers or managers who manage plant operators are also responsible for ensuring the mobile plant is operated safely and by competent workers."