2/7/09 VIC: Boy put in coma after flying fox crash

WorkSafe has called on the operators of school camps and adventure activities to ensure high safety standards are in place and maintained. It comes after a recent prosecution which arose from a February 2007 incident in which a boy was badly hurt while riding a flying fox at a school camp in the Yarra Valley. He crashed into a scissor lift used as the retrieval point for students who had come down the flying fox at the Lyrebird Park camp in February 2007. The student who was 11 at the time was knocked unconscious, suffered a fractured skull and brain injuries and was taken to hospital and placed into a medically induced coma. He is reported to be making a full recovery. WorkSafe’s Executive Director John Merritt said while camps and adventure activities were an important part of growing up; fun should not get in the way of getting home safely. “You can’t guarantee that no one is ever hurt, but you must be able to demonstrate that steps have been taken to minimise risk. No matter what your past performance has been, no will thank you if their child is hurt.” Mr Merritt said anyone in the camps and adventure activity industry must ensure safety is built into activity planning and that safety standards were consistently maintained. “This is particularly important when new activities or equipment are introduced. People need to know how things are to be done before they, or others, are put risk.    Warren Maxwell Williams (as trustee of the Williams Family Trust) recently faced the Ringwood Magistrates Court pleading guilty to two Occupational Health and Safety charges. He was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond and ordered to pay $10,000 to the Magistrates Court Fund and $4,500 in WorkSafe’s legal costs. The court was told: •    use of the scissor lift was not subject to hazard identification or risk assessment, •    there was no control of the effects of using a scissor lift and multiple harnesses on the flying fox; •    there was no (or adequate) information, instruction, training or supervision provided to employee instructors or volunteer helpers (teachers/ parents) supervising children on the flying fox and; •    no system of communication between instructors at the dispatch and dismount points. WorkSafe’s told the court the failings exposed users of the flying fox to risks of serious injury and exposed employees to the risk of injury should a child crash into them. The charges:  Sections 21(1)(2)(e) and Section 23 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004.   Section 21. Duties of employers to employees. (1) An employer must, so far as is reasonably practicable, provide and maintain for employees of the employer a working environment that is safe and without risks to health. (2)Without limiting sub-section (1), an employer contravenes that sub-section if the employer fails to do any of the following - (a) provide or maintain plant or systems of work that are, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health;   and (2)(e)….provide such information, instruction, training or supervision to employees of the employer as is necessary to enable those persons to perform their work in a way that is safe and without risks to health. Section 23. Duties of employers to other persons An employer must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons other than employees of the employer are not exposed to risks to their health or safety arising from the conduct of the undertaking of the employer.