Earlier this year, WorkSafe inspectors visited equipment hire yards to ensure they were meeting workplace health and safety obligations.

There is a large amount of hired equipment in use across the events industry.  This equipment can be a major health and safety risk if it is not in good condition, appropriately designed for the task, or if the user is not provided with information on how to use the equipment safely.

WorkSafe is particularly concerned about the use of the following types of hired equipment:

• powered tools
• mobile plant and equipment
• scaffolding and formwork
• height access equipment (eg elevating work platforms, portable ladders)
• generators and compressors
• site sheds and portable toilets.

Inspectors issued a significant number of notices for contraventions of the Occupation Health and Safety Act 2004.

About half of the notices were issued in relation to the hiring process, particularly with regard to poor storage of equipment, inadequate maintenance, testing and records management, and failure to supply adequate safe use information.

The other half were issued in relation to poor health and safety within the workplace such as:

• poor separation of mobile plant and pedestrians
• electrical hazards
• poorly maintained lifting equipment
• inadequate emergency response/first aid facilities
• poor storage of dangerous goods
• inadequate provision of material safety data sheets.

It is not enough to hire out this equipment and assume, or hope, the user knows what they’re doing.

Businesses hiring out equipment have clear obligations and:

• must ensure the hire equipment is properly maintained, tested and safe for use
• must supply users with the appropriate information for safe use
• should advise customers of any licensing requirements for the operation of plant and equipment
• must provide and maintain a workplace that is safe and without risks to their worker’s health.

The death of Livorno’s Piermario Morosini during a football game  has triggered investigations into a delay in the ambulance’s arrival and calls for more medical equipment at sporting events.

25-year-old Morosini collapsed after a cardiac arrest in the 31st minute at Pescara in central Italy. He never regained consciousness.

After the news of his death, Italy’s football federation postponed all the weekend’s professional matches.

The ambulance was delayed by three minutes outside the Pescara stadium because a city police car was parked in front of the emergency passageway. Stadium stewards were forced to break the car window, put it in neutral and push it out of the way.

Pescara mayor Luigi Albore Mascia announced an internal investigation to find out who was responsible and said the probe would be wrapped up by early Monday.

Overnight, city police in Pescara were kept off the streets and replaced by federal police units because they were afraid the would be targeted by angry fans, municipal police commander Carlo Maggitti said.

Pescara prosecutor Valentina D’Agostino is also investigating to see if the delay may have cost Morosini his life. Doctors who were on the scene suggested that three minutes probably would not have changed the tragic outcome.

“Everything that could be done was done,” Ernesto Sabatini, one of the doctors who treated Morosini, “I was one of the first on the pitch and when I got to him he was already stiff.”

Doctors said that Morosini’s heart had stopped when he was on the field but an official autopsy is to be carried out on Monday to determine cause of death.

Piero Gnudi, Italy’s minister for sport and tourism, told state television late on Saturday that he would see whether sophisticated medical equipment, including defibrillators, should be readily available at all professional sporting events.

Australia’s surf lifesaving peak body has has bowed to pressure to move the sport’s premier event — the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships — to a new beach in the state of Queensland, following the deaths of three competitors.

Matt Barclay, 14, was the most recent victim of dangerous surf conditions at Kurrawa Beach on the Gold Coast — where the event is usually held — in late March, becoming the third fatality at the beach during the event since 1996.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation cited Surf Life Saving Australia chief executive Brett Williamson as saying the decision to move the event was made out of respect for Barclay’s family, as well as those of 15-year-old Robert Gatenby, who died in 1996, and 19-year-old ironman Saxon Bird, killed at Kurrawa in 2010.

“We will be looking to relocate away from Kurrawa to an alternate venue or venues on the Gold Coast for next year’s championships,” Williamson said. “That decision was primarily made out of respect for the three young lifesavers who have lost their lives at Kurrawa.”

He said the move was also out of concern for the emotional wellbeing of other athletes, as well as officials, volunteers and event staff affected by the deaths.

Asked about the likely new location, Williamson said: “All members will be given the opportunity to contribute via online surveys and regional and state forums.”

According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, Phillip Bird, the father of Saxon, said the decision would help repair the tattered image of the surf lifesaving peak body.

He also cautioned officials not to become complacent at surf events, and joined calls for safety devices such as flotation vests to be used.

“They need more measurable standards as to what is dangerous and what can be dangerous. They have made poor decisions at Kurrawa, they can make poor decisions on other beaches as well,” he said.

“What they need is a set of standards looking at the size of the swell, the wind direction, things like that. And for craft events at least, all competitors should be wearing flotation vests.”

SLSA will also fast-track a review of the championships that began last year, he said.

According to Nine News, Surf Life Saving Australia is reviewing the size, duration and make-up of the national titles, at which the country’s best young surf lifesavers compete in such events as ironman, board paddling and surf boat racing.

Australian activist Trenton Oldfield, 35, was charged with a public order offence after he caused a half-hour hiatus in the weekends race by swimming in front of the two universities’ boats in the River Thames.

British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moynihan has said there is a high risk of similar incidents during the London Olympics, which begin on July 27, with the torch relay starting next month.

“It just takes, and is likely to be, one idiot. It’s not likely to be a well-orchestrated campaign through Twitter or websites,” Mr Moynihan, himself a former Olympic rowing silver medallist, told BBC radio.

“It is likely to be someone similar to the idiot yesterday who causes major disruption. That is why all the security measures need to be put in place to minimise the chance of that happening.

“You can never completely remove it but you can do everything possible to protect the interests of the athletes by minimising it.”

Mr Moynihan has said the British government and the London Olympic Organising Committee have been aware of the security challenges “since day one” and are looking at “every conceivable scenario”.

“In many respects that is the biggest ask of the Games: you are not just talking about the competitions, you are talking about the pre-Games training camps, athletes will come well in advance based around the country, you’ve got the torch relay coming up, the public need to be protected.

“It’s not impossible but it is a major challenge. You can never get it perfect unless you remove all the crowds and nobody is going to dream of doing anything like that.”

Oldfield’s antics have also raised security fears for Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, during which a flotilla of 1,000 boats is due to travel down the Thames in June.

In a statement he posted on the Internet before the boat race incident – that gave his motive for his actions as fighting elitism – Oldfield urged other people to disrupt the Olympics.

“Are there events like today’s boat race that you could do something similar to Emily Davison with?” he said, referring to a British woman’s suffrage activist who was killed by a horse in a protest at the Epsom Derby in 1913.  “Is this possible in the lead-up to and within the Olympics itself?”

The High Court recently confirmed that engaging an expert independent contractor to perform work may be considered a reasonably practicable way for a principal to ensure worker health and safety, according to a law firm.

In Baiada Poultry Pty Ltd v The Queen HCA [2012] 14, the High Court heard that Baiada Poultry engaged a contractor, DMP Poultech, to round up chickens at a farm for supply to Baiada Poultry, which then engaged a separate contractor, Azzopardi Haulage, to transport them to Baiada’s processing plant. Baiada did not oversee any of this process.

The incident at the centre of the case involved the death of an Azzopardi Haulage employee, who was killed when a chicken cage fell on him while he was assisting a DMP Poultech employee to load his truck for transport.

Baiada was subsequently prosecuted by WorkSafe Victoria for not ensuring the health and safety of its contractors, and a jury found Baiada guilty. However, following an unsuccessful appeal to the Victorian Court of Appeal, Baiada appealed to the High Court, which unanimously overturned Baiada’s conviction.

“The High Court held that consideration should have been given to whether Baiada had fulfilled its duty by contracting the work to the competent and experienced contractors,” said Allens Arthur Robinsons’ partner, Simon Dewberry, and senior associate, Andrew Stirling.

They noted that the High Court’s decision includes helpful observations regarding the scope of the duty, including that WHS legislation requires an employer to take reasonably practicable steps to ensure health and safety, not every possible step that could be taken; and ‘reasonable practicability’ requires consideration of a range of factors, including the competence and experience of the contractor compared to that of the principal.

In a legal update on the issue, Dewberry and Stirling pointed out that the High Court gave an example of a householder, who engages competent and experienced tradespersons to perform electrical and plumbing work.

“Justice Heydon observed that it would be more practicable for the householders to rely on the contractors to determine how to safely perform the work than for the householders to give instructions on the matter,” they said.

In examining the outcome of the ruling, Dewberry and Stirling said a principal must ensure the health and safety of contractors’ and subcontractors’ workers if the principal has ‘control’ over a matter that gives rise to a safety risk.

“‘Control’ can be a contractual right to control or direct the contractor, or a practical ability to do so,” they said.

Furthermore, Dewberry and Stirling noted that engaging a contractor to perform work may be a reasonably practicable way for a principal to ensure worker health and safety. “This is particularly so where the contractor has greater expertise and experience in performing the work than the principal, and the contractor has its own safety system and procedures that it implements in relation to the work,” they said.

The sold-out festival was scheduled for the first weekend of March but cancelled just days earlier because of flood risks on orders from New South Wales emergency services.

Organisers had told fans on Facebook refund options were “being explored” for 10,000 ticket holders who paid between $30 and $239 for the show.

However, documents lodged with ASIC reveal the Wisemans Ferry event, on the outskirts of Sydney, had been placed into voluntary administration on February 15 after being declared insolvent.

Organisers said this was the company which ran last year’s festival, Playground Weekender Pty Ltd, and that this year’s festival had been run by another company Playground Festivals Pty Ltd. The company behind last years festival was wound up today.

It is understood that festival-goers who sought refunds after the cancellation are still waiting for their money.

One ticket holder who contacted third party ticket company GreenTix was told no refund would be forthcoming until further advice was received from the organisers.

“As the ticketing agent, and not the organisers or promoters of Playground Weekender, we are also waiting to be informed of the refund procedures and timelines,” GreenTix customer support told the music fan. “Our customers will be informed of updates as soon as we have any.”

A statement issued by the Festival this evening reiterated the Green Tix announcement about credit card customers, however there is still no news for those who paid via other options such as PayPal.

“Playground Festivals is working with various parties and urgently working through legal channels to ensure the best result for all ticketholders, and we will have more information next week.”

In response questions to the festivals financial troubles promoter Andrew Rigby said the festival went through a “restructure” last year to write off $1.5 million in debt after the 2011 festival.

“Playground Weekender went through a restructure prior to the 2012 event being announced, the festival is now owned by Playground Festivals Pty Ltd.” Mr Rigby said it was “too early to tell” if Playground Weekender would survive its current financial difficulties to host a 2013 festival.

source: news.com.au

Some 20 people were taken to hospital after a section of stage gave way during a concert at the Globe Arena in Stockholm last night.

A young woman is reported to be in a critical condition with a further four people sustaining serious injuries. ”It was constructed audience platform which gave way,” said Marie Lindqvist at Stockholm Globe Arenas.

The stage section collapsed during a concert by DJ Aviccii and the evening’s second concert was cancelled after the accident.

The 20 injured people were taken to Karolinska Hospital in Solna, St. Göran’s Hospital, Karolinska Hospital in Huddinge and Stockholm South General Hospital.

The leader of the medical team, Daniel Ekberg, confirmed that one woman sustained life threatening injuries and four serious injuries. The remaining 15 people sustained minor injuries. ”For example it concerns spinal injuries,” he said.

When the accident occurred there were around 7,000 people inside the arena. The police have confirmed that they have opened a preliminary investigation into criminal negligence.

Marie Lindkvist said that the concert was completed and that the atmosphere was calm, with all those in need receiving medical attention.

The second concert planned for Friday evening was however cancelled after the accident and it remains unclear what will happen with Saturday’s programme.

Neither the concert organiser or Stockolm Globe Arenas was willing to speculate over possible causes for the accident. ”That will have to be revealed by the police investigation,” said Kalle Pettersson at the promoter STG Live.

The platform which collapsed had been built by an external supplier and had been constructed specifically for this event. ”The firm has followed existing norms and regulations,” Pettersson claimed.

He was unable to specify exactly how many people were on the platform at the time, but underlined that the capacity had not been breached.

The decision to continue the concert was taken in cooperation with the police and arena management.

The grandstand wilted after several hundred people piled on to the temporary structure for a photo behind the senior team who were waiting in the change room.

As the excited crowd waited, a corner of the top tier of the platform gave way and several people fell as far as 2.5 metres. ”It just gave away suddenly,” an onlooker stated ”One man walked away and and was able to stand up.”

Concerned Brisbane Broncos chairman Paul White said he spoke with the man, wearing a maroon Broncos jumper and shorts and believed to be in his 40s, who was taken away by ambulance. ”The guy was in reasonable spirits and he said `can you make sure you arrange a meeting for me with the players’,” Mr White said. ”I think that’s the least we can do for you.”

Mr White said the incident will be fully investigated and he will wait for reports from police and the company that erected the mini grandstand before discussing the cause of the collapse.

“The fans will be taken care of,” Mr White said.

Police arrived and took photographs of the scene and employees of the scaffolding company arrived to examine the stand.

Police talk to a witness after a temporary grandstand collapsed at the Broncos fan day. Picture: David Kapernick

A witness said the accident was “surreal” and “a bit like an earthquake”, with fans losing their footing and falling during the collapse. ”A whole section of the floor at the back collapsed,” he said ”Basically (the grandstand) broke and sunk into the ground and then it just went lopsided and when it went lopsided one of the floor sections probably unhooked itself.”

He said after the collapse he saw five or six people who had fallen to the ground behind the structure, although most seemed to be uninjured. ”It could have been a lot worse. They were probably lucky there weren’t more people on there,” he said.

He said after the accident occurred, the scene was one of “calm chaos” rather than panic, and was handled in an orderly fashion by organisers.

An Oasis fan who claimed he was injured at the rock band’s concert at Slane Castle three years ago has settled his High Court action on undisclosed terms.

Paul Kennedy had told the court his ankle was fractured when he was pushed against a barrier in a crush while queuing for drinks at the concert.

Mr Kennedy (22) Ballinteer Park, Ballinteer, Dublin had sued MCD Productions, Dun Laoghaire, Lord Henry Mountcharles of Slane Castle and Solak Bars Ltd of Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin over injuries allegedly suffered at the Oasis concert on June 20th, 2009. The defendants had denied liability.

On the second day of the case today, Mr Justice Eamon De Valera was told it had settled. No details were disclosed.

In opening the case yesterday, David Nowlan SC, for Mr Kennedy, said MCD was sued as the events manager of the concert and Solak Bars because they organised the bars at the concert venue. .

Mr Kennedy had waited half an hour in a queue to buy drink, counsel said. The serving of drink was so slow it led to a “highly dangerous” build up of people in the corralled area, the “inevitable” happened, there was pushing from behind with the people in front pushing back and Mr Kennedy was caught in the middle.

Counsel said there was no criticism of Mr Kennedy and no suggestion of any form of bad behaviour. The crush was so bad a panic ensued and girls started screaming, he said.

Mr Kennedy was caught “in a human crush” and a barrier was tilted at a forty five degree angle, Mr Nowlan said. Mr Kennedy sustained a fracture but thought he had sprained his ankle and went back to the concert. The next day he sought medical help as his ankle was swollen and was found to have a fracture and had to use crutches.

Counsel said Mr Kennedy could not continue with his FAS electrician’s apprenticeship course in 2009 and was unable to take up the course again until the following year