A conviction against Anglo Coal over a fatal incident in 2019 involving a runaway grader has been set aside.
The mining company had appealed against its 2023 conviction in the Industrial Magistrates Court at Brisbane of failing to discharge safety obligations under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act regarding the state of that machine.
Grader operator Bradley Hardwick was killed and four workers travelling in a driftrunner were injured on February 20, 2019, after Mr Hardwick’s parked machine rolled backwards along a drift into the Moranbah North mine.
During the trial in 2022, the court heard that Anglo accepted that at the time of the incident the parking brake of the grader was defective and could not hold the grader on the drift.
The machine’s service brake was capable of holding the grader stationary on the drift, but once the grader’s engine was turned off, the air pressure required to operate it fell.
Although tests of the brake systems on the grader had been regularly carried out by Anglo, the design of the parking brake was such that it could not be tested independently of the service brake without installing a parking brake test valve, the court heard.
In Anglo’s defence, it argued that it had carried out servicing in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations and the manufacturer had performed various overhauls.
The manufacturer had failed to tell Anglo that a parking brake test valve had to be installed in order to effectively test the parking brake system, the court heard.
In 2023, Industrial Magistrate Michael Quinn determined that Anglo Coal was not guilty of causing Mr Hardwick’s death.
However, he found the mine operator had failed to discharge safety obligations under the act, with a circumstance of aggravation that some of the coal miners in the driftrunner suffered bodily harm.
In a decision handed down last week, President of the Industrial Court of Queensland Peter Davis said the Industrial Magistrate had made findings and drawn conclusions against the backdrop of a misunderstanding of critical aspects of the scheme of the legislation.
Anglo’s success in having the conviction set aside does not automatically lead to acquittal. The prosecution and Anglo must make further submissions on the question of what further orders ought to be made.