On 23 May 2025, James Frizelle’s Automotive Group Pty Ltd trading as Gold Coast Isuzu was sentenced in the Southport Magistrates Court for breaching section 32 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) (‘the Act’), having failed to comply with its primary health and safety duty. A fine of $400,000 was imposed and a conviction was recorded against the corporate defendant.

The defendant conducted a business in the sale and service of new, used and demonstrator Isuzu trucks, and the sale of Isuzu parts. On 22 October 2022 Kyah McDonald, a 21-year old apprentice heavy diesel mechanic, was tasked to de-rim a used metal drum to be used as storage. Mr McDonald used an electric handheld grinder to de-rim the drum in the bin room which housed an environment of ignitable vapours. A spark from the grinder caused an explosion. Mr McDonald was engulfed in flames and suffered circumferential full thickness burns to 95% of his body. He died of his injuries.

A second worker who was at the doors of the bin room suffered burns to 15% of his body. A third worker sustained partial thickness burns to both his hands and the tip of his nose when he tried to put out the flames on Mr McDonald. A fourth worker suffered psychological injuries.

The defendant was sentenced on the basis that it failed to:

1. Provide adequate training and supervision in de-rimming metal drums;
2. Conduct a formal risk assessment of the activity;
3. Draft and implement a safe working procedure outlining how the activity was to be performed;
4. Correctly store and label flammable and combustible liquids; and
5. Post safety signage in areas where flammable and combustible liquids and hazardous chemicals were stored.

In sentencing, Magistrate Thompson found the risk of de-rimming a metal drum in an ignitable room was obvious, foreseeable, and the steps to minimise the risk were not complex or burdensome.  The penalty imposed needed to reflect the need for general deterrence and denunciation. In mitigation was the defendant’s early plea of guilty, lack of prior offending, and demonstrated remorse.

Her Honour considered the overhaul of safety practices the defendant since adopted as a reflection of the corporate defendant’s good character and acceptance of responsibility. Her Honour, however, commented that those same measures were simple and not burdensome and could easily have been implemented prior to the fatal incident, so were not matters she considered as mitigatory.

OWHSP contact: enquiries@owhsp.qld.gov.au