Police centre 'failed to fix faulty freezer' where woman froze to death
Safety issues with a walk-in freezer, where a South Australian woman became trapped and died, were obvious, foreseeable and foreseen, SafeWork SA says.
Cook and cleaner Debra Summers died from hypothermia when she became trapped in the freezer at a police training centre in the Adelaide Hills in 2016.
The police department has pleaded guilty to breaching workplace safety laws over her death and is facing a fine of up to $1.5 million.
In submissions in the South Australian Employment Tribunal on Tuesday, prosecutor Jeff Powell said the failings of the department, which led to the tragic death of Ms Summers, were not transient or related to a single issue.
He said problems at the training centre, which included a lack of mobile phone coverage, had existed for years and had gone either unnoticed or unattended to.
“Quite apart from the obvious and foreseen perils of someone working alone at a worksite, the precise issues with the walk-in freezer were not only foreseeable and obvious, they too were forseen,” Mr Powell said.
He said a technical document had detailed how the freezer should be serviced every six months, including a check of the emergency release system.
Had the document been adhered to, “in all likelihood the precise consequences here would have been avoided”, the prosecutor said.
“Employees at the site, actually talked among themselves about the potential problems with the freezer.
“They talked among themselves about what to do in case one of their number became trapped.
“This was a situation that persisted over years.”
Counsel for the police, Frances Nelson, said the force had acted in good faith at all times and did not seek to minimise or evade responsibility for the death of 54-year-old Ms Summers.
“They have not only acknowledged responsibility to the family but acknowledged it publicly,” Ms Nelson said.
“They have undertaken expensive and massive steps to ensure that nothing like this can happen ever again.”
Industrial Magistrate Michael Ardlie also on Tuesday agreed with a SafeWork SA request that full sentencing submissions and penalty be handled by a judge of the tribunal.
Mr Powell argued that a judge should take charge of the case because of limitations on the penalty that Mr Ardlie could impose.
The matter will now go before Deputy President Brian Gilchrist later this month.
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