Grocon responsible for safety, coroner rules over fatal wall collapse
Grocon was responsible for the safety of a wall that collapsed on Melbourne’s CUB site in 2013, killing three passing pedestrians, a coroner has found.
Siblings Bridget and Alexander Jones, and the French-born Marie-Faith Fiawoo died after the free-standing brick wall fell onto Swanston Street in Carlton in high winds in March 2013.
State coroner Sara Hinchey on Thursday said the onus to ensure the wall's structural integrity had rested with Grocon, which owned the site at that time.
Mr Jones was a 19-year-old university student from Montmorency, and was walking with his 18-year-old sister and fellow University of Melbourne student at the time.
Dr Fiawoo was a 33-year-old French research fellow at Monash University.
All died of head injuries following the collapse of the brick wall outside 501 Swanston Street.
The three were walking down Swanston Street shortly before 3pm on a Friday afternoon when a strong gust of wind brought the wall down.
All three were struck by the falling wall and trapped under the rubble.
Mr Jones and Dr Fiawoo both died at the scene, while Ms Jones died later at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Witness Jonathan Lian was metres from the wall when it fell, and on Thursday said further laws were needed to protect pedestrians.
Melbourne’s countless construction zones constantly reminded him of the tragedy, he said. "Sitting here looking out the window on my house I can see at least four apartments under construction – they’re everywhere in the city."
A subsidiary of Grocon was fined $250,000 in 2014 over the collapse, after pleading guilty to failing to provide a safe workplace.
At the time of the collapse, Grocon was engaged in a bitter dispute with the militant Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU), which has been fined millions for its behaviour on building sites.
The union's state secretary John Setka said the coroner's report highlighted that not enough was done to crack down on companies that failed on safety.
"You have some of these Federal Court judges handing out millions of dollars in fines to us for trying to stop people being killed. But when it comes to people like Grocon ... they get fined hundreds of thousands of dollars," Mr Setka said on Thursday.
"If you kill people, you get a slap on the wrist. If you are out there like us trying to save people, you get fined millions of dollars. What does that say about politics in this country?"
Two years before the wall's collapse, Grocon had engaged a company named Aussie Signs to construct hoarding and signage for the wall. Aussie Signs sub-contracted the work to JT Hire, which in turn sub-contracted the work to another company, Paramount Signs.
Ms Hinchey found that the onus to ensure the structural stability of the wall rested with Grocon because it owned the site.
She noted if a building permit was sought, an engineer would have needed to prepare drawings and computations, which would have confirmed if the building work was structurally sound.
"In particular, whether the timber structure would have been able to be adequately supported by the existing masonry wall and timber paling," Ms Hinchey said.
The coroner said changes to laws and company policies of the entities involved had changed adequately after the incident, to prevent a repeat.
Building laws changed in 2016 and now duties are imposed on land owners and builders to ensure a building permit is in force and work is carried out according to law.
In 2016, Aussie Signs Pty Ltd was fined $250,000 in the County Court after pleading guilty to one charge of failing to ensure people were not exposed to risk.
Grocon owned the site and commissioned the construction of the advertising cladding.
The 3.2m-high hoarding was up to 70cm taller than the brick wall it was attached to.
A subcontractor hired to attach cladding to the wall, Jonathon Westmoreland, was also fined $7500 in 2015 after being found guilty of performing works without a building permit.
The coronial investigation focused on opportunities for prevention, policy and law changes.
With AAP