A plasterer who was injured when he fell from scaffolding at an airport building project 11 years ago was awarded nearly $607,000 in the ACT Supreme Court yesterday.
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The Master, David Harper, found that the accident had occurred after a driver, delivering bricklayers sand to the project, backed his vehicle into scaffolding alongside a three-storey building under construction at Brindabella Park in March 2001.
The driver, who could not see clearly behind him, was being directed into the area by a brickies’ labourer.
The scaffolding was being used by plasterers preparing to put a concrete render on the wall of the adjoining building the next day. The scaffolding had a number of levels, running up to 8 metres off the ground.
The truck driver, Ron Walker, who has now retired after 50 years as a truck driver, had told the court the building site had been congested, and that he had been made to wait while the area near the delivery point for about five cubic metres of sand was cleared. He had then reversed following hand signals from the brickies labourer.
‘‘As on hundreds of occasions on many sites throughout the ACT, I trusted his skill, judgment and common sense to guide me to the tipping point,’’ Mr Walker said.
‘‘At his thumbs up sign, I engaged hoist and proceeded to tip.
‘‘As the sand emptied from the body, the tail gate lifted as sand heaped up underneath it. Unknown to me the tailgate had passed between two support legs of scaffolding as it moved upwards and outwards. As I slowly moved forward off the heap a lug on the tailgate caught a supporting leg of the scaffold, bending it and nearly toppling the whole structure.’’
Workers on the upper level of the scaffolding noticed a jolt, but continued working for some time until someone checked the scaffolding, and decided that it posed a safety risk. Another worker put safety webbing on the scaffolding, to indicate that it was now off limits and was not to be used until it had been repaired.
The plaintiff, Liam Jones, from the subcontractor Celtic Plastering, supervised the exit of other workers, but, on climbing down himself seems to have put his weight on a plank of the scaffolding on the middle level. This slipped and he fell about two metres.
Master Harper found that following the labourer’s directions did not absolve the driver of his own duty of care.
But the labourer who had directed him (and vicariously his employer) had to bear his share of responsibility. He was an experienced building worker, and knew that tipping could force the tailgate back beyond the vertical; the accident happened because he had guided the truck too close to scaffolding.
Master Harper divided liability 50:50 between driver and labourer. Damages had been agreed between the parties.
