Death exposes safety flaws
Several factors led to tragedy
A Queensland truck driver killed in a horror workplace incident had worked 26 days straight and was mourning the death of a friend and colleague who died only two days earlier, a coroner has found.
Truck driver Billy-Joh (BJ) Watts died on May 6, 2017 after he was struck by a 700kg pipe being unloaded from a truck at his employer’s Chinchilla depot in the Western Downs.
Coroner Donald Mackenzie has found the tragedy was likely caused by a combination of factors.
They included an inherently unsafe loading manoeuvre, an inadequate exclusion zone, fatigue, deafness in Mr Watts’ left ear and distraction caused by the loss of a friend and colleague killed in a car crash two days earlier.
Coroner Mackenzie said he hoped the transport industry would learn from the tragedy.
“This death was not an accident,” he wrote in his findings.
“The law does not recognise an event as an accident when there was a duty to keep the injured person safe.
“Accordingly, it is hoped that the death of Billy-Joh Watts provides a template for safety in the trucking industry for many years to come.”
Mr Watts, 36, had worked for Neil Mansell Transport (NMT) as a heavy vehicle operator from October 2016.
Coroner Mackenzie said in the lead-up to his death, Mr Watts worked 26 days straight without a break from April 3 to 28 in 2018 before having two days off and returning to work on May 1, 2017.
On May 4, a colleague and friend was killed in a traffic crash, prompting the company to put staff on a three-day stand down to perform light duties around the worksite.
On May 6, Mr Watts and a colleague were asked to unload a truck laden with heavy pipes weighing between 600 and 700kg each.
It was during this task that Mr Watts was crushed by a falling pipe.
Coroner Mackenzie said “with the benefit of hindsight”, some practical alternatives could have changed the outcome, including establishing well identified exclusion zones around the truck and using twoway radios to communicate instead of hand signals.
“It is evident that NMT had appropriate safe work methods statements and safety processes in place,” the coroner wrote.
“However, it is clear that there were gaps in their safety processes: the flaws in the loading of the pipes, placement of the trailer, exclusion zone limitations, fatigue management, psychologic assistance and assessment of employees following trauma and identification of physical deficits potentially endangering employees…”.
Coroner Mackenzie said it was “impossible” to understand why Mr Watts entered the exclusion zone that day and that he had been described as a “meticulous worker that was compliant with all safety measures and policies”.
An investigation by the Office of Industrial Relations did not recommend criminal prosecution.