Brickie files suit over fall at work

VETERAN brickie John Peters has told a court the moment he fell backwards onto a pile of blocks on a Smithfield worksite changed his life.

“I was in agony,” he recalled.

Mr Peters, 61, “a bricklayer my whole life”, was working for Rob Wilkins in August 2015 when he tripped on an obstruction at a domestic Smithfield worksite concrete slab.

He told Cairns District Court he suffered “excruciating pain” in his lower and upper back and lower legs after the accident.

“I was in agony and had to lie there for five minutes before I could be helped up,” Mr Peters said.

He was suing Robert and Karen Wilkins for more than $350,000 in a personal injury civil trial.

Mr Peters told the court he returned to work after eight weeks.

“(Mr Wilkins) said it was losing him too much money with Work Cover,” Mr Peters said.

“The whole time I was experiencing constant lower back pain.

“(Mr Wilkins said) ‘we all get sore backs’.”

On a worksite in February 2017, Mr Peters felt a “pop” in his back after bending to pick up a cement block.

“I felt severe lower back pain with shooting pain down my left leg.”

He had not worked in construction since that moment.

The plaintiff told the court in his experience, tradesmen “just put up with” tripping hazards on slabs.

“People would put something in the way,” Mr Peters said.

He had never carried out a safety inspection or, received documents or safety training about tripping hazards on concrete slabs at domestic sites in the 20 years he had worked for Mr Wilkins, he said.