A business has been hit with a $300,000 fine after a delivery driver's right leg was broken in six places when he was hit by a forklift operator who drove blind.
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A court has also found that the risk of a worker being seriously injured or killed was known to the chilled food business at the time.
Griffith-based Capitol Chilled Foods was sentenced in in the ACT Industrial Court on Thursday.
Capitol had pleaded guilty to one count of failing to comply with a health and safety duty, thereby exposing a person to the risk of death or serious injury.
Victim Matthew Thompson, 48, was employed by Capitol as a delivery driver at the time.
Court documents state that on March 30, 2021, Mr Thompson parked his delivery van at the business' back dock area to unload crates.
Douglas Charles Olsen, 65, was operating a forklift and drove forwards into Mr Thompson, who was standing behind the van with his back to the driver, crushing his leg.
Prior to the incident that morning, Mr Olsen's direct supervisor saw him driving the forklift forwards while it was stacked with items and warned him about safety issues.
Mr Olsen was licensed and had more than seven years of experience in the role.
Magistrate James Lawton fined the company $300,000 on Thursday.
He found the likelihood of risk was high and the business had failed to implement adequate safety procedures.
"The risk of a worker being seriously injured or killed ... was known to the defendant and was foreseeable," Mr Lawton said.
He found putting in place adequate safety procedures would was not costly, burdensome or mildly inconvenient.
In a victim impact statement previously read to court, Mr Thompson detailed how his lower right leg was broken in six places with his bone breaking "through the skin" after the incident.
"Initially I wasn't sure what had happened but I remember being petrified," the statement reads.
After four operations, he was left with a shorter right leg, causing him to walk with a limp, and a surgeon told him to not do high-impact exercises again.
The day after the incident, the company implemented a number of safety measures, including an exclusion zone and a physical barrier for delivery drivers.
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