QLD:Bosses in court over Qld insulation death

AAP General News (Australia)
08-29-2011
QLD:Bosses in court over Qld insulation death

By Christine Flatley

BRISBANE, Aug 29 AAP - A man who was electrocuted in 2010 while installing foil insulation
may have ignored his employer's advice to stop using metal staples, a court has heard.

Mitchell Sweeney, 22, died in February last year while working in the ceiling of a
home at Millaa Millaa, south of Cairns.

He was electrocuted when he stapled a metal fastener through the foil and into a live wire.

Mr Sweeney was working on behalf of Gold Coast company Titan Insulations, which was
making claims under the federal government's subsidised home insulation program.

Following Mr Sweeney's death, Titan Insulations was charged with failing to conduct
its business in a way that was electrically safe.

Company directors Nicholas William Lindsay and Frederick Ramon Palomar were also each
charged with failing to ensure the company complied with its obligations under the Electrical
Safety Act.

They pleaded not guilty on Monday, the first day of their trial in the Brisbane Magistrates
Court.

In his opening, prosecutor Andrew Herbert, who is representing Queensland Workplace
Health and Safety, alleged Titan put its employees in danger in a number of ways.

He said the company provided insufficient training, failed to conduct a proper onsite
assessment of the house and did not provide adequate supervision.

Mr Herbert said Titan also failed to ensure workers used plastic fasteners instead
of metal staples.

"The use of sharp metal staples in the ceiling of the house had been the subject of
a specific ministerial direction that such a thing should not occur," Mr Herbert said.

He added that the mains power in the house was not switched off before Mr Sweeney and
his two colleagues started work.

"There was a very real and present danger," Mr Herbert said.

The court heard Titan gave a verbal directive to workers in late 2009 about using plastic
staples.

However, the court heard another worker would give evidence that he and Mr Sweeney
ignored those instructions because it was faster to work with metal ones.

"Titan supplies us with the plastic staples and we go and buy our own metal staples,"

Andre Palomar, brother of Frederick Ramon Palomar, said in a statement.

He is expected to give evidence during the hearing, which is set down for five days.

AAP cf/jl/hn

KEYWORD: SWEENEY

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