A tree maintenance company has been fined $170,000 (and ordered to pay more than $3500 in costs) after a worker died while conducting pruning work at Maida Vale in 2024.
Mr Palmer WA Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to contravening its general duty of care and, by that contravention, exposing a worker to the risk of death, and was fined in the Armadale Magistrates Court yesterday.
The prosecution did not allege that the contravention caused the fatal incident.
In July 2024, a tree pruner was engaged by Mr Palmer to climb a tree at a private residence and prune the parts that were encroaching on power lines.
The director of Mr Palmer accompanied the tree pruner to the job, which included removing small shoots from a mature eucalypt tree that was in close proximity to 22,000-volt high voltage live overhead power lines.
The director stepped out the distance from the tree to underneath the power lines. The shoots were approximately 2.5 to three metres from the conductors.
When the pruner was halfway up the tree, he requested that the director provide him with a pole saw, which measured approximately 288cm.
The uninsulated pole saw had a sticker on the shaft warning that it should not be used within 15 metres of power line conductors. The director advised against the use of the pole saw but still gave it to the worker.
Soon after, the director heard a loud scream and saw the pole saw drop to the ground. He looked up to see the tree pruner collapsed in the tree.
Emergency services rescued the worker from the tree. Tragically, he could not be saved.
The director had extensive experience working around power lines and had completed the training to become a qualified vegetation management worker. He was a qualified line mechanic and was previously an arborist working around power lines.
However, the company took no steps to verify that the worker who lost his life had the necessary qualifications to work as a vegetation management worker.
WorkSafe Commissioner Sally North said today the case was a tragic example of a lack of strict safe work procedures being followed.
“Working near high-voltage power lines can have catastrophic consequences, so there is no room for shortcuts when managing the risks,” Ms North said.
“Safety measures must be identified and put in place before the work starts, particularly where workers or their equipment could come close to live power lines.
“There is a code of practice for electrical safety in vegetation control work near live power lines, and it states that a safety observer must be used where a person or tool being used could come too close to power lines.”
“The safety observer must ensure that all persons and equipment stay outside the safe distance, that hazards and control measures are being managed, inform workers if a dangerous condition may occur and suspend work if necessary, and not perform any other task while acting as a safety observer.
“In this case, the director of the company was writing a job safety analysis while the worker was in the tree.
“This is an important reminder that while documented risk management is important, it must be translated into action to keep people safe”.