The Court of Appeal has upheld a decision to impose half of a million Australian dollars in penalties on a Company for a 2017 incident involving exploding acetylene and oxygen gas cylinders. The explosion happened when these cylinders were loaded into a fully enclosed toolbox in a customer's ute, which went against safety instructions, leading to injuries and property damage. The Company lost its defense in the lower court, where it was found that the company failed to ensure safe work practices.
The Company failed to take the following reasonably practicable steps: conduct a visual inspection to ensure that the vehicle was adequately ventilated; and the gas cylinder bottles could be transported in an upright position while remaining adequately secured; refuse to load the gas cylinder bottles onto a customer’s vehicle if it did not satisfy the visual inspection; provide other options to customers if their vehicle did not satisfy the visual inspection, provide instructions on the loading and transport of the gas cylinder bottles to the driver of the vehicle.
SOURCE