A Woonona man who died when he was hit in the chest by a stream of water from a high-pressure industrial hose at the steelworks was the victim of multiple workplace safety failings, a coroner has found.
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Those failings included a lack of proper equipment, inadequate training of supervisors, and the absence of a risk assessment.
Setaleki Kolomaka died on May 22, 2008, when he lost his grip on a high-pressure industrial hose while cleaning out a sediment pit at the Port Kembla steelworks.
The jet water stream - strong enough to cut through concrete - struck the 39-year-old father in the chest, causing fatal injuries to his heart and lungs.
‘‘Seta [Kolomaka] dropped the lance and put his hands to his side and chest and sat down,’’ Deputy State Coroner Ian Guy said today in handing down his findings following the inquest into Mr Kolomaka’s death.
‘‘Within minutes he was losing consciousness and died at the scene.’’
Magistrate Guy found Mr Kolomaka’s death avoidable and not his fault. Rather it was the result of a string failures by the company which employed him, Allied Industrial Services, now known as Veolia Environmental Services.
The coroner found that the hose used by Mr Kolomaka did not have handles or adequate means of control as recommended by the Australian Safety Standard and that this allowed it to slide between Mr Kolomaka’s hands.
Supervisors from Allied [now Veolia] gave evidence during the inquest that hoses, or ‘‘lances’’, used by workers "never had handles” before the accident and some were unaware they could have handles at all.
The Australian Safety Standard recommendation that there should be two methods of shutting off the water was also not adhered to, with Mr Kolomaka entirely reliant on a colleague using a pedal device known among workers as ‘‘dead man’s pedal’’ to stop the water in the event of an accident.
Supervisors had not been properly trained in the force from water pressure placed on their workers by using different types of hoses and, particuarly, different nozzles.
‘‘In the case of some staff that had a supervisory role, their lack of knowledge of the charts and ability to calculate reaction forces was stark,’’ Magistrate Guy said.
‘‘It would, however, be entirely wrong to lay blame with the supervisors. What it does reveal is a fundamental lack of training by Allied of its more senior staff.’’
There was also a failure by Allied to carry out a general risk assessment for working with a hose and a failure to carry out a risk assessment for the particular task Mr Kolomaka and his colleagues were carrying out.
‘‘In determining the manner of death, the inquest has shown at the very least to the family, that Seta and his colleagues were not departing from the normal method of using a water-jet lance,’’ he said.
‘‘Having another person in direct control of the water supply was the way it was done. Seta and his colleagues did not fail to follow a system of referral to a nozzle chart, determining a reaction force and the corresponding need for mechanical support. There was no such system.’’
The accident has produced a significant change in work practices within the company and led to a review of the Australian Standard and a planned introduction of a Code of Practice.
Last year Allied Industrial Services pleaded guilty in the Industrial Court of NSW to a breach of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and was fined $130,000.
