Man injured after deadly drop

By Lia Bichel
A MAN suffered serious head injuries after he fell at a building site in Princes Avenue, Springvale.
At 9.30am on Friday morning, the 18-year-old Berwick apprentice fell 2.5 metres down a void at the site, where stairs were to be built.
He was taken to The Alfred hospital with head injuries and is in a stable condition.
The same day, WorkSafe issued three Prohibition Notices at the three-unit development, which require barriers to be built in each unit so people cannot fall.
WorkSafe’s executive director John Merritt said the man could have died or suffered untreatable, permanent injuries.
“Today’s incident could easily have been the 29th workplace death this year,” he said on Friday.
“It could have been the fourth this week and the third involving a young man under 25. Lives and human bodies are fragile. The incident that you walk away from can easily kill.”
Mr Merritt said the construction industry particularly, had to pay greater attention to safety and return to basic principles.
He said fall protection has been required in every Victorian workplace where there was a risk of a fall of more than two metres.
“These are known dangers with known solutions and despite significant progress in the industry we still find shortcomings,” he said.
Last week’s incident occurred two days before a major WorkSafe pre-Christmas campaign urging Victorians to remember the real reason for applying good workplace safety standards.
“Victoria is in its most risky time of the year,” Mr Merritt said.
“There is a bottleneck of activity with many businesses winding down for a well-deserved break and others leading into their peak seasons.”
Mr Merrit said every year the November to February period had the most fatalities.
Since 2000, 106 people have died at work in this period from a total of 275 deaths.