You know, imagine being at work, hearing someone’s been injured and going to help…because you’re
a senior educator… and to find it’s your son.
You know, you’re never gonna see his grandchildren, you’re never gonna meet his wife. I really
miss being a Mum to Jason. He’s just an easy going, fun loving kid and he was just
20 years old which isn’t…you’re kind of just coming into your own straps, you’re
own confidence, what you really want out of life I think. He was a loving big brother
but he was always a leader in something they shouldn’t have been doing. He was a larrikin,
no doubt about it. He use to love his car, the Commodore. He
used to lap around in it, drive real slow at 30 km/h down town.
The memories…He’d get himself into trouble but it was all harmless fun, you know? He
was just a good kid to have around. He umm, probably was too trusting.
He was definitely too trusting. Unfortunately I think that, you know, aided things to happen
around him that lead to his death. He was looking for work. Looking around and he managed
to come upon this job. Christ, I wish he hadn’t taken it.
He never even got his first paycheque, he was only there for 9 days.
It was 81 townhouses. I think at the time of Jason’s death they probably had around
40 built at that stage. The electrical on that site was very, very ordinary.
I had said to him, “Do you know, mate? If
it’s dodgy it is not worth your life”. He said “It’s going to be ok, Mum. They’re
gonna fix it up”. But they never did. It had been a wet year as well which didn’t
help. The site had just water on it everywhere. There was open trenches left, right and centre.
They were ankle deep in mud in the good areas. I was on the excavator and yeah, I think Jason
and a couple of labourers, they were on the ground. We’ll just clean up for the moment
to make the site look responsible for when Work Health and Safety turn up but things
went wrong there. And the machine operator said “Could you
boys just take the board out from underneath that frame so I can backfill up to it please?”
Yeah. I just asked Clayton to move the board out of – out of the road. Jason was just
hanging on to the box. And then the cables come out. Like they should be locked in the
box, and – but they weren’t. They just come out and they just lighted the whole – the
whole box up mate. Jason had about three to five seconds of full
electricity in him. he walked away – like walked away from it,
fell to the ground after about 10 m. The ambulance could only get to within 100
metres of Jason. This is a four wheel drive ambulance designed for that country. So - Jason
was basically left for a while. Then, the ambulance officer having to walk so far, and
because of the state of the site, she couldn’t really use the best of her equipment. So they
had to get him on a stretcher and then carry him all the way back to the bloody ambulance.
So on that day I was in Claremont. Part of my role as the senior nurse educator is to
keep up my clinical skills, and also make sure that I can also aid in any kind of scenario.
Bec had actually answered her phone, and she said “Oh my God, someone’s been electrocuted,”
So, um, drove there, hopped out, and as I’m walking into the hospital I get another phone
call from Rebecca, and she said “Lee, it’s Jason”.
You know, I – I’m Jason’s father, I’m meant to be the protector. I didn’t do a good job here did I?
It was just like a black cloud had covered
Clermont that day. I think a lot of people wanted answers, how and why this happened
to one of our young people and nobody really knew.
It's hard. You grow up with him your whole life and then one day you wake up and he's
gone, hey. You've lost a best mate. You've lost a brother.
Your normalisation for your family goes. Every time we sit at the table, that’s,
um – you know, when you – all’s you can do is light a candle for a person to represent them.
I experienced severe PTS. I used to get these
adrenalin rushes that were just like – my hands would just shake. I have no control
over them. If I started getting flashbacks about with Jason in the resus room, I’d
– it’s like I was drowning. I have been trying to put the blame on myself,
and everyone tells me it’s – it wasn’t, “It was an accident Jason”. You know what
I mean? “It wasn’t your fault.” Yeah I was pretty messed up for about 12 months.
I was seeing a psychiatrist and I used to be on medication, trying to keep my anxiety
down and trying to sleep. I did turn to – turn to the bottle, and did drink a lot to get
the images out of my head. I lost my marriage over it.
The workers that I’m aware of that witness the incidents themselves generally are never
the same. Quite often they can’t return to that industry if they can return to work
at all. And they have ongoing psychological issues re-living it - thinking “What if?”,
“What could I have done to prevent it?” and feeling responsible for it. So it has
a life-long consequence. It’s just been quite shattering and have
to find some normality. Jason has never been shown a worth by the
people who were instrumental in his death. So the only – the only real people that
can portray that worth and make sure that that worth is at least exposed is the family,
you know. And it’s not an easy thing to do, but for me you have a duty to do it, that’s
it. Something funny happens, you always think of him. Something – there’s a million
things – a million times a day that – that you think – yeah. Like to tell him this,
like to see that, da, da, da, da. That’s just – that won’t stop. It’s so stupid.
It could have all been easily avoided. Preventable. Absolutely.
You don’t get killed doing what Jason was doing so I knew someone had done something
badly wrong. The whole site was a safety issue - eh. You
couldn’t tell the boss that. You’re there to do your job, mate.
And what should have happened is, the earth leakage should have tripped and that would
have saved Jason. But all that was there was this main switch and the only thing that blew
were two transformer fuses. And once I got on site - yeah - she’s pretty
wet. They should have shut the site down. A lot of people didn’t know how to do CPR
onsite, that’s the worst thing about it. But there was one bloke there that tried to
help him, he got a bit of water out of him but then his eyes started rolling back and
yeah - it wasn’t good, mate. But people out there going to the big job sites like
that, it’s just have your conscience and look around and – yeah, there’s something
– something wrong. Speak up and – and tell someone and – if no one won’t listen,
go to the next person and – and get the matters dealt with. If we don’t fix it this
is what happens - yeah - someone can die like Jason.
Fatalities and incidents are generally not one thing. They’re generally a series of
contributing factors that lead to an incident. And in this case those contributing factors
were extremely preventable. A lot of young people don’t feel comfortable speaking up
about safety issues whether they’re intimidated by the culture in the workplace or whether
they feel by speaking up they may potentially lose their job. They should be empowered by
their workplace - by their employer - for there to be a safety net and supervision and
for other people to identify the risks with them and teach them about hazard identification
and risk management.
Well, housekeeping is key. If you’ve gotyour housekeeping sorted out it can remove a lot of other risks. Mainly slips, trips
and falls. But in the event of an emergency and we have to evacuate people or we have
to get emergency services in - if your housekeeping is substandard it’ll affect your ability
to do that in a timely manner. And also, following all the rest of their duties - carrying out
due diligence, insuring there’s safe access, insuring power is isolated when it’s being
located. One of the keys to having good safety when you’ve got multiple contractors on
site - and let’s face it, that’s every construction project - is clearly defined
roles and responsibilities for persons entering that workplace - so everyone’s aware of
what those expectations are. I’d say a young worker starting in our industry - there should
be no time limit on educating and making sure they feel comfortable doing the tasks that we ask of them.
The older and wiser should be looking after
the new and inexperienced. But really, those people that are older and wiser, should be
going to their top employer and – and putting in a complaint, or bringing up a toolbox,
or ringing up Workplace Health and Safety. There’s basically pathways, you go there
to solve things, whether it’s a supervisor, manager or you know, your government bodies.
But for these younger guys who are doing a job, if you don’t know, ask. Simple as that.
And don’t assume, and if you’re being left unsupervised and you don’t know how
to do it, ask them to supervise. Be an advocate for your own safety too. We need people’s
behaviours to change, because that’s how the Universe operates. Actions, behaviours,
consequences. So if we can teach these people to have an awareness of what they’re doing,
be good in their role - it’s much better being proactive and being able to prevent.
Because that’s what we want to do, we want to prevent deaths happening out there. And so
I think that’s why that anger and frustration comes from, is most of these deaths are preventable.
You don’t have to make a big stand to make sure something like this doesn’t happen.
All’s you need to do is talk to one another just quietly. You know, it doesn’t – it
doesn’t have to be we’ll all rally at the gate, just quietly say “Do you realise
that’s not right?” Make sure everyone that you work with is aware if there’s a
danger present. I would have never dreamt I would have this
life, and I never wanted ever. It’s been a real just nightmare.
I feel a duty to do what I can to make sure a stupid thing like this that, you know, takes
someone’s life, doesn’t happen again.