A Northern Territory excavator operator has been charged by the safety watchdog after a fellow worker was fatally struck by the machine’s bucket.

May 25, 2021

A Northern Territory excavator operator could be jailed after a fellow worker was fatally struck by the machine’s bucket

Kim Murray is accused of reckless conduct and failing his duties as a worker after part of the excavator hit a truck driver at a plant hire business in suburban Darwin in 2019.

The excavator was fitted with a large excavator bucket that contained two smaller buckets and a ripper, which were not restrained, NT WorkSafe said on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old worker was helping to load the excavator onto the truck’s flatbed trailer when the smaller excavator bucket fell and struck him.

NT WorkSafe alleges that although Murray was a qualified and experienced plant operator, he operated the excavator when another worker was in the strike radius of the excavator.

He faces a maximum penalty of $300,000 or five years in prison or both.

Four other charges were laid under the NT’s Work Health and Safety Act for reckless conduct.

Titan Plant Hire Pty Ltd, trading as Territory Plant Hire, was charged with failing its primary duty of care and failing to ensure its workplace was without risk to the health and safety of any person.

NT WorkSafe alleges Titan Plant Hire should have known it was extremely hazardous to allow workers to work near or around moving mobile plant.

Titan Plant Hire director Jason Frank Madalena was also charged with failing to exercise due diligence and breaching his duties.

NT WorkSafe alleges Madalena failed to ensure Titan Plant Hire had appropriate resources and processes in place to manage the risks in the workplace.

The company did not have a safe system of work to keep workers and other visitors separated from moving plant, the watchdog said.

Titan Plant Hire faces a maximum combined penalty of $6 million.

Madalena, as an officer of the company, faces a maximum combined penalty of $1.2 million or five years prison or both.

The matter will go before Darwin Local Court on June 23.