Redline Towing and Salvage has been convicted and fined in the Melbourne County Court, after a worker was crushed while loading equipment onto the trailer of a truck.
The company was fined $130,000 after pleading guilty to two charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004.
The incident occurred in February 2007 when 44-year-old employee Colin Todd was loading an elevated work platform onto the back of a tilt tray truck.
According to WorkSafe Victoria, the worker had never received training or guidance on how to safely load an elevated work platform.
The elevated work platform was not connected to the winch on the truck. While lowering the basket, it made contact with the tilt tray, causing the rear wheels of the EWP to lift off the ground.
Due to a lack of brakes on the front wheels of the elevated work platform, it rolled backwards and crushed the driver between the basket and the ground.
WorkSafe Victoria says its investigation found there was no adequate information or training provided by Redline to its drivers about appropriate safety procedures around loading and unloading of equipment on to its trucks.