Go home safe to your family
A strong and personal message was shared this morning during the NSW Project Remediate presentation – however, the message applies to all involved in the construction industry. Patrizia Cassaniti shared the impact of the scaffolding collapse that tragically crushed her 18yr old son Christopher to death on 1 April 2019. Contributing causes included removing of ties from the 5 storey scaffold, and overloading the hoist before its planned removal. Both mistakes were overlooked or not understood by the site teams and Ganellen plead guilty and was fined for the safety breaches.
All ACRA members should review the circumstances of the collapse and take care to avoid similar mistakes in your workplaces so you can have your entire team go home safely. Taking care would include looking out for your mates, recognise complacency, and calling out safety issues. The cost of a worksite injury or death is not simply measured in dollars, but the ongoing grief and regret of those directly impacted. However, the financial cost of avoiding the mistakes that lead to the collapse that killed Christopher would likely have involved merely extending the time that scaffolding was maintained to allow safe materials handling without overloading the system.
Touched by Christopher website can be found here:Â https://touchedbychristopher.org.au/
The SafeWork NSW review can be found here:Â https://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/compliance-and-prosecutions/incident-information-releases/construction/scaffold-collapsecircumstances
