19/12/2011
WorkSafe made 10 visits to the Southern Star Observation Wheel at Docklands in the 12months leading up to an incident early this month. A "non-disturbance notice" issued by WorkSafe for the wheel site expired on Tuesday 06th December but the state secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy union, Bill Oliver said "safety concerns around the Docklands wheel remain - after it almost killed workers the week before."
The union is calling for an independent engineering assessment on the wheel before workers return to the job. Just before midnight the Monday prior, slings attached to hold points on the wheel broke loose allowing the wheel to turn uncontrollably and causing workers to flee as large pieces of the assembly structure broke loose and crashed to the ground. "What caused the wheel to rock violently, almost killing the people in the attached cranes?" Mr Oliver asked. "We can't continue until an independent engineering study can tell us what went wrong," he said.
WorkSafe said it visited the wheel site 10 times in the lead up to this incident. "Half of these visits have been for meetings with engineers of the various parties involved," WorkSafe media manager Michael Birt said.