Company's safety approach put teen at risk

4 Oct 2012, 4:32 pm   -   Source: AAP

A company's lack of "meaningful safety policy" contributed to the death of a teenager who died after installing roof insulation in Sydney, a coroner says.

A building company's "casual approach" to safety contributed to the death of a teenager who collapsed from heat stroke after installing insulation in a Sydney home, a coroner has found.

Marcus Wilson, 19, had little experience in insulation when, in November 2009, he climbed into the ceiling space of a home in St Claire, in Sydney's west, to perform work under the federal government's Home Insulation Program.

After carrying bags weighing 15-20kg, drinking Coca-Cola and working in temperatures of more than 40 degrees, Mr Wilson began talking to himself and appeared upset and agitated.

Shortly after, he collapsed and was taken to Nepean Hospital, where he died from the complications of hyperthermia, including total organ failure and muscle meltdown, Coroner Hugh Dillon said on Thursday.

Handing down his findings at the Glebe Coroner's Court, Mr Dillon said while there was no single cause of Mr Wilson's death, a contributing factor was that the company he was working for, Pride Building NSW, had "no meaningful safety policy".

The court heard Mr Wilson was filling in for a friend when he climbed into the roof with one of the company's subcontractors, Collin Cini.

Although the teenager was not employed or contracted by Pride, Mr Dillon said the company ultimately profited from Mr Wilson's work.

Mr Dillon said Pride had no guidelines to ensure worked stopped in high temperatures, did not bring the risk of heat stroke to the attention of contractors and did not provide insulators with any means of measuring roof temperatures.

Pride's managing director, Ryan Glover, was "demanding" and told Mr Cini on a number of occasions: "If you don't do the job, you don't have a job."

"The obvious inference is that Pride was concerned more with profit than with the health and safety of its contractors," Mr Dillon said.

The inquest into Mr Wilson's death was not an investigation into the federal government's heavily-criticised Home Insulation Program, Mr Dillon said.

Any attention by Pride to safety was primarily in an effort to comply with the terms of the contract it had with the commonwealth, rather than the health of its workers, Mr Dillon said.

"While Pride was not directly responsible for Mr Wilson's death, its casual approach to health and safety issues contributed significantly to him being placed in harm's way," he concluded.

Mr Dillon also found the teenager was vulnerable to heat stroke because he wasn't acclimatised to very high temperatures and was drinking Coca-Cola rather than water to hydrate himself.

The coroner made a number of recommendations, including that WorkCover consider undertaking a publicity campaign about the dangers of heat stroke, and that guidelines for Australian government programs include a standard reference to compliance with state-based OH&S legislation.

"Lessons ought be learned and taken to heart within the insulation industry from this tragedy," Mr Dillon said.

"It is a genuine tragedy that through no fault of his own, a hard-working, good-hearted young man lost his life in this way."

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