Sharpe Development Group Pty Ltd

A construction company was fined $25,000 plus costs after a man was injured in an earth wall collapse at Airlie Beach.

Sharpe Development Group Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in the Proserpine Industrial Magistrates Court, to breaching the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 , having failed to ensure that the way the company conducted its undertaking did not affect the workplace health and safety of others.

The court heard that after being advised the footings for a new retaining wall were secure, the site foreman moved to the face of the excavation to mark out the area for the footings to be excavated and as he did so the earth wall collapsed on him.

He sustained a fractured vertebra and back injuries, fractured pelvis, multiple facial contusions, laceration, and bruising.

The Magistrate also ordered the company to pay investigation costs.