Driver Sentenced to 10 Weeks Jail After 18hr Shift
A company has been accused of a string of WHS breaches, in a case involving an 18-hour shift, five young workers, four dead horses, and a workers' compensation dispute.
Ben Yole Racing Pty Ltd has been charged with five breaches of the Tasmanian Work Health and Safety Act relating to a vehicle incident that occurred in the middle of the night in January 2023.
He said the State Director of Public Prosecutions alleged the company contravened:
Sections 19 Primary duty of care and 32 Failure to comply with health and safety duty Category 2 of the Act, in relation to the management of fatigue;
Sections 19 and 33 Failure to comply with health and safety duty Category 3, also in relation to fatigue management;
Sections 19 and 32, relating to the towing of a horse float;
Sections 19 and 33, also involving the horse float; and
Section 38 Duty to notify WorkSafe Tasmania of a notifiable incident.
The vehicle was a Ford Ranger being driven by a 20-year-old employee of Ben Yole Racing, with four other young Ben Yole Racing workers, and towing a large un-registered horse float.
The ute crashed after the driver briefly fell asleep. The four passengers sustained injuries and the four horses in the float died.
In August 2023, police charged the driver with negligent driving and failing to ensure passengers were wearing seat belts. The driver was subsequently sentenced to 10 weeks' jail, wholly suspended, in the Launceston Magistrates Court.
In that case, Magistrate Ken Stanton heard the five workers had been working for about 18 hours when the crash occurred, preparing horses and travelling to and from a harness race meet in Hobart.
The horse float was overloaded and unregistered, and an appointed "relief driver" for the return trip wasn't licensed to tow large floats.
The Magistrate told the driver her employer was "also responsible for the creation" of the crash risk.
One of the passengers of the vehicle successfully battled for workers' compensation in the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which rejected Ben Yole Racing's claim that he was travelling in the vehicle for "his own benefit" and not employed at the relevant time.
The Tribunal found that at the time of the crash, the worker was complying with the requirements of his employment "either on the basis that he was doing actual work or on the basis that he was doing something that he was reasonably required or expected to do in order to carry out his duties".
The Tribunal noted that Ben Yole Racing, a leading harness racing training company in Tasmania, did not have workers' compensation insurance and was separately charged with failing to hold a workers' compensation policy of insurance.
Ben Yole Racing owner Ben Yole has pleaded guilty to the charge.
In a separate development, Ben Yole was recently suspended from harness racing training for three years, for mistreating horses.
