Quarry directors cleared of responsibility for 2007 workplace fatality

A court has absolved a construction company’s directors of responsibility for an accident in a quarry, which had resulted in a worker being crushed to death in the cabin of an overturned truck, after it held that no voluntary negligent conduct had taken place.

The four directors of Saliba Bros Limited were charged with having, through their negligence, contributed to the death of Jesmond Vella in Wied iz-Zija, Marsaskala in 2008.

The men were additionally charged with not having taken the necessary steps to prevent injury in the workplace and of not having performed a risk assessment, as required by law.

The tragic accident took place in 2007, when Vella, a concrete mixer truck driver, had been extracting sand from a mechanical crusher truck and throwing it onto a pile of sand at the bottom of the quarry. The truck had overturned, trapping him underneath it.

The court had heard one of the two other workers on site at the time of the incident testify that he had run down into the quarry after the accident and found Vella underneath the steering wheel. A mechanical shovel had to be used to dislodge the cabin and extract the victim.

The workers explained that the dumping procedure entailed the truck placing the scoop and depositing its payload of sand or gravel on to a pile by first opening the cabin door and then opening the scoop’s door. It appeared that the accident occurred after Vella had reversed the truck too close to the edge of the unstable pile, which then collapsed, causing the truck to overturn and fall.

The court discarded a statement made by the quarry operations manager, Lawrence Saliba, after it noted that it had been made to police without him being cautioned that it could be used against him. Neither had he been informed of his rights at that time or when the Occupational Health and Safety Authority investigated the case.

The court said, “It was hard to believe that any life-threatening workplace practise would be left out of a site report by the OHSA and that the authority would not have taken any action against the operators, which it doesn’t appear to have done in this case.”

The court noted that in the case in question, there was no doubt that the work entrusted to Vella was dangerous but that the danger was easily foreseeable. The accused had implemented those work practises in order to minimise the risks.

It also noted that this was the first serious workplace injury registered at the quarry in its five years of operation and that this had taken place because Vella was not following the practises which the accused had insisted on.

In her judgment, Magistrate Doreen Clarke explained, “The fact that an accident takes place at the workplace, even if fatal, does not necessarily mean that the person running that workplace did not comply with the law.”

For this reason, the court acquitted the men, holding that the that the incident was not attributable to the “voluntary negligent conduct” of the accused.