A cement company has been fined $135,000 after being prosecuted by SafeWork NSW over a crane accident on a construction site.

Kens Sand & Cement faced the Industrial Court of NSW over the February 2023 incident, in which a worker was using a crane resting on a truck to unload a bag of sand.

The crane brought down a live, low-voltage overhead power line, damaging the truck. The worker was not injured.

Kens pleaded guilty to an offence under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 for failing to comply with its duty to workers.

SafeWork commissioner Janet Schorer said: “Risk control measures for working with mobile plant and vehicles near power lines are well known. Contact with overhead power lines is a serious risk that can often result in electrocution, electric shock or burns.

“Employers and duty-holders have an obligation to ensure no person, plant or vehicle comes within an unsafe distance of any overhead power line so far as it is reasonably practicable.”

Read the full judgment here.