Another tractor death in regional Victoria

WorkSafe Victoria is investigating the death of a man who died when a tractor he was driving tipped over in north-east Victoria yesterday.

The man, aged in his 20s, had been moving bee hives at Bruarong, south of Yackandandah.

He was the second Victorian to die at work since Friday and the second in two weeks to die in a tractor-related incident.

The previous tractor-related death involved a farmer in his 70s who was found on 17 February after being run over on a property near Donald in the state’s north-west.

The director of WorkSafe’s Manufacturing, Logistics and Agriculture division, Ross Pilkington, said yesterday’s incident was a warning to tractor operators and the people who employed them.

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WorkSafe Victoria investigates Bayswater North fatality

WorkSafe is investigating the death of a 26-year-old Wantirna man who died at a factory in Stephenson Rd Bayswater, this morning.

The man was running an electric press used to mould rubber gaskets and seals and was found by workmates around 11.30am.

WorkSafe is investigating the possibility of him suffering an electric shock.

Safety improvement notices will be placed on the machine he was operating and a similar one next to it.

This is Victoria’s fourth workplace fatality of 2010, compared with six at this time in 2009.

WorkSafe’s Acting Director of Health and Safety, Stan Krpan, said simple measures made a real difference not just in preventing deaths but the many serious injuries which have life-changing consequences for individuals and their families.

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Business, director, three workers convicted and fined for bullying

WorkSafe has issued a plea to employers and workers to maximise anti-bullying efforts and to deal with it if it occurs.

WorkSafe’s acting Executive Director, Stan Krpan, said today‘s sentencing of four men, one a company director, and his company on charges relating to bullying sent a message to the entire community.

WorkSafe told Melbourne Magistrate Peter Lauritsen waitress Brodie Panlock, 19, was bullied by three workmates while her employer allowed it to go on. An earlier Coroners inquest found Brodie committed suicide after being bullied in 2006.

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