Arabic version: تغريم شركة بناء بعد انهيار جدار في وايفيل وإصابة أم وطفلها
According to ABC News, Smart Built Pty Ltd has been convicted and fined $150,000 after a 30-tonne section of concrete wall collapsed onto a neighbouring Wayville home in Adelaide’s inner south, injuring a mother and her baby.
The South Australian Employment Court ruling said the wall fell during severe weather on November 28, 2023. It struck the rear 60 centimetres of the house and most of its outdoor living area. The mother needed stitches to her knee, while her baby sustained superficial cuts. The tribunal said fatal injuries had been a distinct possibility.
Smart Built was the principal contractor for a three-storey residential development with 10-metre-high precast concrete wall panels. The panels had temporary propping, but the company requested its removal about two weeks before the collapse to improve site access. The ruling said no engineer inspected the panels or their permanent structural support before the propping was removed.
The court found the premature removal of propping, before an appropriate lateral bracing system was installed, was the proximate cause of the failure. It said the risk of harm had been poorly controlled and could have resulted in death or extremely serious injury to multiple people, while accepting the conduct was not deliberate or reckless.
Structural damage to the home was assessed at $85,413.82, with a further $19,211 in contents damage. Smart Built paid $10,000 to the affected neighbours for the inconvenience of ongoing building works and assisted practical repair steps. The court also accepted evidence that the company had changed its safety systems and intended not to use precast panels again.
