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Tim had just started his second year as
an apprentice electrician and the
electrical contractor the Tim worked for
had a job to service signs for a fast
food outlet and for this particular task
they were starting in Brisbane
travelling all the way through
Queensland I think that there was a lot
of expectation on a very young set of
shoulders he just tried to do the right
thing and tried to earn the respect of
the employer so he could be called a
employee I do remember the
morning that I last saw him
our memories peg I remember his jacket I
remember the way he looked and just
member saying good boy I never realized
that was the last time I was going the
same in any way at all that I had
recognized my son
the day at all turn pear-shape was the
14th of august it was the last job on
this run that the boys had been doing
from Brisbane through the Keynes the
work that Tim was doing was very much
electrical work they were exchanged new
light bulbs they were changing the
ballast for had to check all the wiring
and stuff inside working inside the
science was not live work because they
had unplug it so that created a level of
protection there they had a bit of
trouble trying to find a position to
park the elevated work platform on the
day when I look back at where it was I
couldn't think of a worse place to park
it
the supervisor put it directly under
high-voltage power lines
that worked for a while had morning tea
and it was the first task after morning
tea the supervisor was doing some other
work and he puts him into the elevator
web platform and him had large el-amin
rods in the bucket but he must have been
taken back up to reinstall in the side
when the bucket got up high enough he
wasn't being watched so he didn't have a
spotter to keep an eye on him he's
almost going straight up and the metal
that he had in the bucket with him has
gone well into the exclusion zones and
either contacted the line or gone very
close to it so that it's arced over yeah
he got the full force of that power all
over him right through they were able to
actually manually lower the ewp from the
ground when they got it down it was just
basically a charred body it was just a
devastating scene it was a bit like a
trauma zone there was bird equipment
burnt clothing
I remember they gave us back his safety
boots
even that were burned
the ambulance that picked him up from
the accident scene took him to the
Cannes Base Hospital and he was taking
him into intensive care and just to see
him there I didn't even recognize it was
my own son I just hope and pray no the
poor parent has to walk in and find what
I found that day my beautiful boy was
not a beautiful boy
he was devastated burns are such a
powerful powerful injury to suffer I'd
sit I didn't know what to do we had a
seven or day aid the doctor came in and
said if he stays here he will die if he
has any chance of living it's a matter
of getting one flying doctor flight
ain't getting him to Brisbane
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and they put him on a plane there was
nowhere to be able to hug you touch the
only part that wasn't burn was the top
of his head remember petting the top
boots head thinking it was probably the
last time I'll say hello name
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he was in absolutely atrocious condition
oh he was close to death he was burnt
over considerable amount of his body and
he'd had a deep passage of current in a
few places as well and so it makes it
pretty horrible Tim never really
regained consciousness cope difficult
consciousness team underwent a series of
major surgeries so much my memory of
10th is that month I was just singing
burned and devastated I just can't seem
to shake it
I want to remember in when he learned to
ride his bike the first home and I
remember him when he was first riding a
motorbike or driving a car my memory is
not that my memory is that month and it
is so hard and it happened in 1999 and I
still have it with me the time I just
couldn't come to terms with it myself
I was thinking he'll be right he will
come home and come home and when you get
a phone call at midnight it's never a
good thing and we answered it and they
just said just come there just come we
sprinted to the hospital and pulled up
out the front and jumped out and ran up
the emergency ward and it was my
beautiful boy
my 17 year old son my firstborn the
pride of my life I couldn't comprehend
it at the time of Tim's death he was 17
and formats all
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we'll never get right
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Timo's death was so easily avoidable in
my opinion why this occurred is that the
risks weren't managed properly in this
case I believe there was a number of
things that went wrong the bottom line
is that the vehicle should have been
parked and positioned in such a way as
that they couldn't come within those
exclusion zones or if there was no way
that they could do that safely that they
should have stopped the job and
negotiated how to do it better or go to
contact with the boss he was under the
age of 18 he shouldn't have been
operating it and if he was going to
operate it he should have been under
really close supervision the safety
observer
/ supervisor was on the ground doing
some other work and wasn't actually
looking at the time if you need a safety
observer that's a full-time job in the
bucket that Tim was standing in wasn't
even insulated so uninsulated EWP not
wearing enough protective clothing to
stop from the flash burns not having a
supervision they are some really basic
things and then dealing with a young
person it's just a fact of life that
when people are young they I don't
believe anything can ever happen to them
they're they're bulletproof you're not
you know I could walk you outside and
show you you know 20 or 30 people right
now who same age same gender and they're
certainly not bulletproof you just can't
be too careful if it gets you you're
dead or you're devastated
you're wrecked with younger people
sometimes when Apprentice is a fresh out
of school they're not as confident as
old apprentices and they won't speak up
they'll just do what they're told it's
really important to speak because you
messing with your life as well as
everyone around you make sure all the
apprentices know that it's okay to speak
up and
you might sound like an idiot for
speaking up if you feel I'm so
definitely instill into them the
importance of communication confidence
if you get that gut feeling that hey oh
this isn't right or I'm not sure about
this you know 100% about doing anything
then best just ask someone else I think
about everyone else in the workplace and
how to be safe for everyone not just
myself it's all the team effort it's not
just everybody looking after the
apprentice the apprentice has got to
look after himself other apprentices
other team members it's watching each
other's back we've got a buddy system in
place so that way if someone does get
hurt
there's another person there younger
workers they don't have the life
experience generally if you've got an
apprentice who lacks experience and
maturity they're going to take shortcuts
gonna be less aware of hazards and the
risks involved and more likely prone to
get injured manage those hazards well
before the 17 year olds have to make a
decision that they may not be well
equipped for and that's where
supervision definitely plays a big part
a key message from me for what it's
worth is a young apprentice can never
assume that they know what they're doing
so to always relay information back to
the tradesmen what they believe they've
got to do and what's expected I've been
in safety for a very long period of time
and often get told the story that
sometimes the safety steps that people
want to put in place are too hard it
takes too much work I can tell you much
harder job ahead and that was trying to
look at what to put on Tim's headstone
you