21 July 2012

Concrete boom collapse at the Kingston Foreshore

| johnboy
Join the conversation
24
kingston foreshore collapse

Three workers have been injured in an accident on a work site in Kingston this morning.

The ACT Ambulance Service and ACT Fire & Rescue were called to Dockside, Eastlake Parade were a concrete boom had collapsed.

Firefighters have rescued one of the men who was trapped under the boom.

Update to follow.

10:02am Saturday 21 July 2012

Intensive care paramedics have treated three patients on scene.

All are currently being transported to The Canberra Hospital, one in a serious condition the other two with minor injuries.

10:12am Saturday 21 July 2012


View Larger Map

[Words Courtesy ESA, Picture from a reader]


UPDATE 21/08/12: 14:21: The police are now asking for witnesses following the death of one of the workers:

ACT Policing is investigating a workplace incident at Kingston Foreshore this morning (Saturday July 21) killing a man in his early 20s.

At about 9.44am police were called to a construction site where a concrete pourer had collapsed injuring three workers.

ACT Ambulance arrived at the scene and tried to resuscitate the man without success. The two injured workers have been transported to The Canberra Hospital for treatment.

ACT Policing are preparing a brief for the Coroner with the assistance of Work Safe ACT.

Anyone who is yet to speak to police and witnessed the incident is asked to call police on 131 444.

Join the conversation

24
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

Today was scheduled as the start of the inquest into Ben’s death. This followed a directions hearing about 6 weeks ago.

Nothing on the local news.

Interesting that legal representatives of the pump’s manufacturer from both Australia and US were present at the directions hearing.

Do we have to attend these court sessions to hear the facts, or does the media still report on them?

Reading the various reports, I would suggest that this ‘well maintained’ concrete pump was not as expected.

Yes, it had recently been inspected. But there appears to be something wrong with the fasteners that held the gantry to the chassis.

New bolts incorrectly torqued? Old bolts re-used? New bolts of inferior quality?

The inspection was not apparently made locally. The certification was apparently made in Sydney, So a f**kup somewhere else has probably caused a local death.

Which means the local inspectors/OHS people and site personnel are in no way to blame for this death. This could not have been anticipated, or prevented.

Again, my condolences to the famies.

wildturkeycanoe1:04 pm 22 Jul 12

I am surprised that some people here think it is not normal for construction sites to be open on weekends. Also, the assumption that safety takes a day off on Saturday is just nonsense.
Due to the unrealistic deadlines to get these projects completed, 7 days a week is the only way to avoid hefty fines known as liquidated damages. Sometimes it is all the safety red tape that slows down a project to the point where everyone panics towards the end and starts to neglect filling out paperwork, doing inspections, having several hour long meetings to discuss the same issues over and over again. From personal experience, when the completion date is only days away, even the safety officers begin to overlook things because time is money and money is wasted on ridiculously over complicated procedures. There is common sense safety and then there is OH & S, worlds apart in my opinion. Anyone here who would like to start pointing blame at different tiers of the organizations involved should spend a couple of hours in the middle of a construction site and see for themselves how ridiculously difficult it is to even step foot onto the deck of a concrete pour.
No doubt this project will be shut down pending full inquiry, adding to the delays already faced by everyone involved. As soon as it’s open again, everyone will be double timing to catch up. More weekend work and extra hours for everyone.

HenryBG said :

I-filed said :

screaming banshee said :

gooterz said :

Lots of people are responsible for safety if people are seriously hurt then someone is to blame.

It is entirely possible to experience an unforeseen mechanical/structural failure, despite having the most rigorous of engineering, safety inspections, and maintenance in place.

.

Are you a Katie Gallagher adviser by any chance? AS IF it isn’t possible to secure a concrete pour so equipment won’t kill a worker. Sheesh!

In fact, safety procedures should be such that no accident can occur without multiple simultaneous failures occurring.

I have done a couple of OH&S type courses both in the military and construction and it has been shown that every accident has a chain of events leading up to it. Removing a link or links from the chain will decrease or eliminate the accident.
The trouble is seeing the links click into place BEFORE the accident..

I-filed said :

screaming banshee said :

gooterz said :

Lots of people are responsible for safety if people are seriously hurt then someone is to blame.

It is entirely possible to experience an unforeseen mechanical/structural failure, despite having the most rigorous of engineering, safety inspections, and maintenance in place.

.

Are you a Katie Gallagher adviser by any chance? AS IF it isn’t possible to secure a concrete pour so equipment won’t kill a worker. Sheesh!

In fact, safety procedures should be such that no accident can occur without multiple simultaneous failures occurring.

screaming banshee said :

gooterz said :

Lots of people are responsible for safety if people are seriously hurt then someone is to blame.

It is entirely possible to experience an unforeseen mechanical/structural failure, despite having the most rigorous of engineering, safety inspections, and maintenance in place.

.

Are you a Katie Gallagher adviser by any chance? AS IF it isn’t possible to secure a concrete pour so equipment won’t kill a worker. Sheesh!

screaming banshee said :

It is entirely possible to experience an unforeseen mechanical/structural failure, despite having the most rigorous of engineering, safety inspections, and maintenance in place.

Rather than pointing the finger and speculating how about waiting until the incident has been investigated.

Well said.

Thoughts are with the family/friends/colleagues of the young man who lost his life yesterday.

gooterz said :

screaming banshee said :

gooterz said :

Lots of people are responsible for safety if people are seriously hurt then someone is to blame.

It is entirely possible to experience an unforeseen mechanical/structural failure, despite having the most rigorous of engineering, safety inspections, and maintenance in place.

Rather than pointing the finger and speculating how about waiting until the incident has been investigated.

By the same token that your just blaming the equipment, i was just drawing attention to the fact that weekend construction work is rather unusual and would have more dangers because of the ‘regular’ staff and workers wouldnt be there.
This investigation is likely to take a very long time and nothing will be heard about it until its finished most likely. So your happy that nothing will be done about this until the final report comes out. Yet I would rather they be pro-active so a similar thing doesnt happen in the mean time.

More likely you just feel like attacking people on the internet with your keyboard

I work in Commercial Construction and can advise that working on Saturdays is common in this industry. In fact we operate every Saturday except for when inclement weather prevents us from doing so. Most construction companies work hard to engender a ‘culture of safety’ which means that both senior management and individual employees are jointly responsible for safe work practices rather than one “guy in charge of safety”. I agree with Screaming Banshee that premature speculation and assumptions about standard industry practices is neither helpful nor sensitive.
The most recent news report indeed suggests that mechanical failure was a major contributing factor to this particular incident.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/aftermath-of-a-worksite-tragedy-20120721-22gf6.html

gooterz said :

screaming banshee said :

gooterz said :

Lots of people are responsible for safety if people are seriously hurt then someone is to blame.

It is entirely possible to experience an unforeseen mechanical/structural failure, despite having the most rigorous of engineering, safety inspections, and maintenance in place.

Rather than pointing the finger and speculating how about waiting until the incident has been investigated.

By the same token that your just blaming the equipment, i was just drawing attention to the fact that weekend construction work is rather unusual and would have more dangers because of the ‘regular’ staff and workers wouldnt be there.
This investigation is likely to take a very long time and nothing will be heard about it until its finished most likely. So your happy that nothing will be done about this until the final report comes out. Yet I would rather they be pro-active so a similar thing doesnt happen in the mean time.

More likely you just feel like attacking people on the internet with your keyboard

You really don’t know anything. Some times it feels like Canberra people look down on the blue collar workers and whenever something goes wrong they jump on the blame train and try to point out poor work attitudes, incompetency etc These guys are good operators and we you are operating a boom with the danger of knocking people over, wasting mix etc they take it seriously. A boom collapsed, I dont know how the hell a stupid OHS officer, high vis shirt, steel caps or a hard hat could of prevented that.

gooterz said :

screaming banshee said :

gooterz said :

Lots of people are responsible for safety if people are seriously hurt then someone is to blame.

It is entirely possible to experience an unforeseen mechanical/structural failure, despite having the most rigorous of engineering, safety inspections, and maintenance in place.

Rather than pointing the finger and speculating how about waiting until the incident has been investigated.

By the same token that your just blaming the equipment, i was just drawing attention to the fact that weekend construction work is rather unusual and would have more dangers because of the ‘regular’ staff and workers wouldnt be there.
This investigation is likely to take a very long time and nothing will be heard about it until its finished most likely. So your happy that nothing will be done about this until the final report comes out. Yet I would rather they be pro-active so a similar thing doesnt happen in the mean time.

More likely you just feel like attacking people on the internet with your keyboard

Gooterz, this is not an attack on you. This is a statement of the obvious. You clearly have no idea about any facet of the construction industry in Australia. It is very common for construction jobs to run 6 days a week and Saturday pours are run of the mill, business as usual and in some cases preferrable due to traffic conditions. In most organisations, the QA and safety people will still be there on the saturday too, particularly if an important activity is planned for that day.

Now, a bloke has died at work. That is totally f***ed up and horrible. No one who worked with him, under him, or above him in the organisation would have wanted this. I hope fervently that the investigation determines the root cause and that processes are put in place to prevent a life being lost in the same cirumstances ever again. Given the total lack of publicly available information on the incident, I won’t comment on the cause. I merely offer my sincere condolences to the family of the lad, and urge any member of the worksafe team reading this to do their utmost to find the cause, so that this tragedy need never be repeated.

screaming banshee said :

gooterz said :

Lots of people are responsible for safety if people are seriously hurt then someone is to blame.

It is entirely possible to experience an unforeseen mechanical/structural failure, despite having the most rigorous of engineering, safety inspections, and maintenance in place.

Rather than pointing the finger and speculating how about waiting until the incident has been investigated.

By the same token that your just blaming the equipment, i was just drawing attention to the fact that weekend construction work is rather unusual and would have more dangers because of the ‘regular’ staff and workers wouldnt be there.
This investigation is likely to take a very long time and nothing will be heard about it until its finished most likely. So your happy that nothing will be done about this until the final report comes out. Yet I would rather they be pro-active so a similar thing doesnt happen in the mean time.

More likely you just feel like attacking people on the internet with your keyboard

screaming banshee10:48 pm 21 Jul 12

gooterz said :

Lots of people are responsible for safety if people are seriously hurt then someone is to blame.

It is entirely possible to experience an unforeseen mechanical/structural failure, despite having the most rigorous of engineering, safety inspections, and maintenance in place.

Rather than pointing the finger and speculating how about waiting until the incident has been investigated.

Ex Warrior said :

shirty and gooterz,
If the safety officer or the day of the week, or if it was mechanical fault andnot the fault of the operator will you show some and apologise to who your accusing was at fault?
A young fella has lost his life and its horrific to those involved. Show some deceny

Will you be apologising to me because i posted that comment well before news came out that someone was killed? Likely the same for shirty.

Isnt the safety of the work equipment also subject to safety inspections?

Your not going to be one of those people that thinks people die and its just a fact of life and no one is at fault.
Clearly something/someone was at fault, as things work in the real world this piece of equipment was being used and someone is responsible to make sure its safe to use. Again someone else is responsible to make sure its used correctly and more people are there to make sure the workers are trained to use it.
Lots of people are responsible for safety if people are seriously hurt then someone is to blame.
Think about it, if we didnt have people responsible for the safety of others we would have many more serious accidents.

But another thing strikes me as curious: that (ok, on a day with other news items) the death of a worker and the injury of 2 others did not rate a mention on any of the nationial news programs this evening. Are worksite fatalities now considered so normal that they are not even newsworthy (whereras if it had been a fatality + injuries on the Kings/Princes Highway, it would have rated a mention)?

Im not confident there is a conspiracy to ignore workplace deaths. I did see this sad incident reported on the Channel 7 news, approx 10 past 6 this evening. Pictures are everything – perhaps no other network had a camera/vision.

shirty and gooterz,
If the safety officer or the day of the week, or if it was mechanical fault andnot the fault of the operator will you show some and apologise to who your accusing was at fault?
A young fella has lost his life and its horrific to those involved. Show some deceny

The hi-vis guys are can be somewhat of an oddity to Canberra locals sometimes, however, this is a very sad day for everyone in this city. A young guy who will never reach his potential in life. Very sad.

Just awful. My condolences to the man’s family and friends. Best wishes to the two injured workers.

How can it be that this still happens? Is this the third construction death recently?

From the CityNews item, it would appear either mechanical failure of the machine or the machine falling over is to blame. One is down to maintenance, the other to work practices. There WILL have been a stuff-up, but the seriousness of the consequences mean individuals need to be brought to account.

My condolences to those involved. This should not happen in todays worksafe environment. Many construction industry personnel spend much/all their time attempting to make these sites as safe as going shopping.

There is something very very wrong in the construction industry in the ACT.

Condolences to the family of the worker. A dreadful tragedy.

Northsidechick1:49 pm 21 Jul 12

I am very sorry to hear this and my thoughts go out to the workers and their families 🙁

richiedt said :

Sadly one of the workers has died:

http://citynews.com.au/2012/collapsed-concrete-pourer-kills-worker/

An unacceptable loss 🙁

Yeah, sorry, but surely this can only happen when person/people don’t know what they’re doing (as per the GDE bridge-pour collapse)? Concrete pouring is hardly rocket surgery.

Sympathies to the injured, and hope they recover quickly. But, given the state of construction in this town, is anyone really surprised?

Whats up with pouring concrete in canberra!

Would wonder if this being a weekend had anything to do with it. Was guy in charge of safety only working weekdays?

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.