A prime mover and trailer travelled approximately 140 metres through fences, across a road and into neighbouring businesses. The driver forgot the park brake, but the organisation’s maintenance system had already been warned twice that the audible safety control was disabled.

Gerald Hoekstra and Ede Taric survived the initial Rainbow Desert Enduro collision, but not the fire that followed. The coronial findings expose how compliant equipment, unverified escape arrangements and inadequate fire suppression failed when they were needed most.

A man was fatally struck by metal debris ejected from a tractor-mounted slasher while standing approximately five metres away. The contractor knew the risk and had documented a 30 metre exclusion zone, but the work continued.

A 20-year-old engineering student suffered serious spinal injuries after unstable ground gave way beneath her at the edge of a three-metre excavation. The excavation was already showing signs of failure, yet work continued without battering, fencing or effective edge protection.

A robot did not suddenly become confused, develop intent or decide that a worker was a box. It performed the movement its control system allowed it to perform while a person remained inside its hazardous operating envelope. On 10 Jan 26, a worker entered part of an automated packaging line at Multisteps’ Narangba factory in Queensland to inspect a sensor. The machine had reportedly stopped twice within approximately ten minutes and was known to malfunction regularly. While th

The Sea World helicopter crash was over in seconds, but the conditions behind it developed over months. This article examines how poor change management, stale information, failed communication and weak critical controls created a fatal conflict point, and what every workplace must learn from it.

On 27 Jan 21, marine salvage worker Max Haywood was fatally struck by the collapsing mast of a submerged steel yacht during a crane operation at Rozelle, New South Wales. The lift involved an uncertain load, an unsuitable lifting point, overloaded equipment and an operator who did not hold the required crane licence. The incident was not caused by an obscure technical defect or an unforeseeable change in conditions. It developed from a work method that replaced engineering, v

On the morning of 21 Feb 17, I was climbing the external stairs at a large transport depot in the suburb of Melbourne Airport when I saw a heavy plume of black smoke rising to the south-east. With a long-standing interest in aviation, I knew it was in the general direction of Essendon Airport. I had previously taken Air Force Cadets to Essendon for visits to the Victoria Police Air Wing, Air Ambulance Victoria, a commercial aviation operator and the control tower. I also had

Space Shuttle Columbia launches on mission STS-107 from Kennedy Space Center on 16 Jan 03. Image credit: NASA. On 16 Jan 03, Space Shuttle Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA on mission STS-107. Approximately 82 seconds after launch, a section of insulating foam separated from the shuttle’s external fuel tank and struck the reinforced carbon-carbon panels protecting the leading edge of its left wing. The foam strike was captured by launch cameras, but

A $200,000 reminder that traffic management must physically control the risk On 17 Dec 25, D’Orsogna Limited was convicted and fined $200,000 after a reversing forklift struck a worker and pinned her legs to the ground at its Mickleham warehouse in Victoria. The prosecution is another reminder that instructions, eye contact, painted lines and high-visibility clothing do not physically prevent mobile plant from colliding with a person. The incident occurred in April 2023 while

A worker entered a demolition site with two feet and left without the toes and part of the forefoot of his left foot. The risk had been identified, the controls had been documented and the business had a Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS), but the controls described in that document were not operating when they were needed. Photo by Frederick Shaw on Unsplash On 02 Jul 26, the South Australian Employment Court convicted A. Haros Demolition Pty Ltd of a Category 2 offence under

Two Queensland prosecutions released in Jul 26 provide useful lessons about how organisations manage work outside their normal operations and how they respond when an existing control system has already failed. One involved an apprentice losing an eye during an unfamiliar ancillary task, while the other involved a dozer operator spending approximately eight hours trapped upside down beneath a coal stockpile. The industries, work and legislation were different, but the underly

Photo by Kilyan Sockalingum on Unsplash On 02 Jul 26, the Industrial Court of New South Wales convicted Wumbulgal Agriculture Pty Ltd following the death of a farmhand operating a quad bike during livestock mustering. The company was fined $555,000, ordered to pay SafeWork NSW’s agreed costs of $55,000, and required to arrange side-by-side vehicle training for all workers employed or engaged by the business. The offence was prosecuted as a Category 2 contravention of sections

Shortly after 2200h on 10 Jun 60, Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538 crashed into the sea while approaching Mackay Airport. The Fokker F27 Friendship, registered VH-TFB and named Abel Tasman, was carrying 25 passengers and four crew, and every person aboard was killed. Heavy fog had affected Mackay Airport and prevented the aircraft from completing an earlier landing attempt. The crew remained near Mackay while conditions were monitored, but contact was subsequently lost dur

On 06 May 90, a heritage passenger train hauled by steam locomotive 3801 stalled while climbing the Cowan Bank, approximately five kilometres south of Brooklyn on the Sydney to Newcastle railway. A following CityRail interurban passenger train received a proceed indication and struck the rear of the stationary excursion train, killing six people and injuring 93. The final carriage of the excursion train was destroyed and the front of the interurban train was extensively damag

The CCTV footage lasts only seconds, but it captures the entire problem. External contractors are moving a coin blanking press weighing around three tonnes with a forklift when the press becomes unstable, falls from the forklift tines and narrowly misses a worker standing beside it. The worker escapes, so the event becomes a near miss rather than a fatality. That distinction matters enormously to the worker, but it does not make the underlying failure less serious. The footag

In the early hours of 20 Oct 89, a semi-trailer crossed onto the wrong side of the Pacific Highway near Cowper, north of Grafton, and struck an approaching passenger coach. The collision tore open the driver’s side of the coach, killed 21 people and injured another 22, while the coach came to rest in a roadside ditch only metres from the Clarence River. The truck driver was subsequently found to have been under the influence of amphetamines. ABC News retrospective examining t

Editor’s note: This article provides general information about an NSW court decision and WHS governance. It is not legal advice. The legal question Can the sole director of a company prevent the production of corporate safety records by arguing that locating or producing them might incriminate the director personally? The NSW District Court considered that question in SafeWork NSW v Paul Whitmarsh (No. 2) [2025] NSWDC 86. The answer was no, at least where the subpoena is dire

On 26 May 25, Comcare publicly announced that Services Australia had been charged with breaching federal work health and safety laws after a worker was violently attacked at a Melbourne Centrelink office. The charge arose from a 23 May 23 incident at the Airport West Centrelink office, where a Centrelink worker suffered serious injuries after being stabbed by an individual at the workplace. This is not a matter to be treated as a standard “difficult customer” incident. It is

On 02 Dec 99, at approximately 0822h, an interurban passenger train collided with the rear of the Indian Pacific on the main western line east of Glenbrook in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. Seven people were killed and 51 passengers required hospitalisation. The damage to both trains was extensive, the disruption to the rail network was significant, and the consequences extended well beyond the rolling stock, the timetable and the incident location. Glenbrook remains on