Echuca-Moama Taxi Group Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in the County Court to a charge of failing to ensure that people other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks.
The company provided wheelchair-accessible vehicles that were equipped with a wheelchair tie-down and occupant restraint system to secure passengers.
The court heard there was a risk of serious injury or death to passengers in wheelchairs if the taxi drivers did not properly secure them with the restraint system.
Two passengers had died after their wheelchairs tipped over while travelling in taxis provided by the company in separate incidents in February and June 2021.
The charges only relate to the passenger who died in February 2021, with the second incident adding to show the dangers.
Judge Justin Lewis said a taxi picked up a woman in a wheelchair from visiting her daughter in Echuca at about noon on February 6, 2021.
Not far from the pick-up point, the woman’s wheelchair tipped over backwards as the taxi accelerated in Ogilvie Ave.
The woman called for help when the wheelchair first tipped, but she died at the scene.
Her cause of death was positional asphyxiation.
After that incident, drivers of the taxis did refresher training on how to use a hoist, use tie-down restraints for the wheelchairs and how to ensure the seatbelts were fitted correctly.
On June 28, one of the group’s taxis picked up a 75-year-old man in a wheelchair from Echuca Pathology in Leichardt St, Echuca.
As the taxi drove over a small dip coming out of the car park, the driver heard a crash as the passenger, who was an amputee, fell on to his back in the wheelchair.
He was able to be brought upright again and told the driver he was okay.
However, once he was home, it was discovered he had a fractured sternum.
He died seven days later.
After this second incident, a WorkSafe inspector told the company to do refresher training for all of its drivers, and daily checklists were to be filled out.
In handing down his findings, Judge Justin Lewis said it had to be borne in mind that the occurrence of death or an injury did not form part of the offence of failing to ensure that people other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks.
Instead, only that there was a breach was what the judge had to act on.
Judge Lewis said he accepted that there had been a failure for the company to do ongoing refresher training and competency assessment for its drivers on safely securing wheelchair passengers.
He fined Echuca-Moama Taxi Group $133,828.
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