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Category: Building and Construction / Occupational Health and Safety / Workplace / Accidents / Disasters and Accidents

German construction worker who fell to death 'not wearing harness'

Tuesday, 11 Oct 2016 12:24:35 | Eliza Laschon

A tribute to the German construction worker who died at a Perth worksite. (ABC News: Courtney Bembridge)

A 27-year-old female construction worker who plunged to her death down a ventilation shaft was not wearing a safety harness when she fell, the site's building contractor says.

Hanssen Proprietary Limited managing director Gerry Hanssen said the German national was wearing a safety harness for most of her shift, but she had taken it off before doubling back to fix a mistake she noticed.

"She'd been working on site for three months and she's done 15 floors of silicon ... she wore the safety harness full-time, all the time without any problems," Mr Hanssen said.

"At three o'clock she must have been ready to knock off ... she took the harness off and she must have looked back and she left a small section of, 20 centimetres out or something, and she obviously thought 'oh, I better fix that before I go'."

The woman fell to her death down the ventilation shaft from the 15th floor to the 2nd.

The site, a luxury apartment block being built by Finbar on the site of the former ABC Perth building, remains closed today.

The woman was on a holiday working visa and employed as an unskilled labourer.

Mr Hanssen said her family had been notified and was en route to Perth.

He said the rest of the employees on site were trying to come to terms with her death.

Mr Hanssen defended the safety regulations that are in place at the site.

"Each one gets a safety induction before they start," Mr Hanssen said.

Worksafe gained access to the site this morning and is investigating.

AustraliaPlus


 

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