Mum still haunted by son's fatal fall

NEVER FORGOTTEN: Anne Te Wake and her beloved son Sonny Swaanenbeck, victim of a workplace accident in Australia.

Anne Te Wake finds it easier now to talk about her son's death in Melbourne on May 28, 2011, but she's still haunted by her visualisation of the fall that killed him.

"I have been on an emotional roller coaster that refuses to stop," she said.

"I feel battered, bruised, stressed, ripped to shreds and pulled through the ringer all in one."

Mrs Te Wake, who still lives at Mitimiti, where she raised her son Sonny Swaanenbeck, said the last time she had seen him was the day he walked her down the aisle on her wedding day in 2010.

"My heart has been broken in half, and it's a wound that nothing or no one on this Earth can fix," she said.

"I miss the phone calls, I miss hearing his voice, and I miss the big smile on his face that he always had."

Mrs Te Wake has now taken some satisfaction, if not comfort, from the fact that two Australian companies have been fined a total of $450,000 over 30-year-old Mr Swaanenbeck's death. Both had admitted and been convicted on two counts of breaching the OHS Act 2004, in that they failed to provide safe systems of work and appropriate instruction, supervision and training.

The court heard that Mr Swaanenbeck, who had been working on a construction site, died at the scene after falling about 40 metres when the mast of a piling rig collapsed. He had been employed by Frankipile, which in turn employed affiliated company Vibro-pile to operate the piling rig, owned by Frankipile.

The court heard that a Vibro-pile employee who was given the job of preparing the rig for work was unfamiliar with its controls and had never installed or been trained in how to install the 1.8-metre leader extension that had to be fitted to the mast. Despite reporting his concerns to his supervisor, work on preparing the rig continued. As a result, 10 of the 16 bolts needed to secure the leader extension to the rig were not fitted.

Mr Swaanenbeck was working at the top of the rig when the mast snapped later that day, falling to the ground, along with a 20-metre section of the mast.

Both companies had faced maximum fines of $1.1 million, their legal teams blaming the manufacturer's manual, which reportedly did not mention the side bolts in the installation procedure.

Prior to sentencing, other members of Mr Swaanenbeck's family said they hoped the penalties imposed would drive home to other employers that workplace deaths were more than collateral damage.

"After three years I thought I could forgive those responsible," one said, "but sitting in court and seeing the accused try to duck and hide and shift the blame has been disgusting."

Worksafe Victoria and the Office of Public Prosecutions have appealed to the Supreme Court over the fines imposed.