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Scaffolding Safety
In Australia, there have been some recent disturbing trends in the building industry. In 2012, scaffolding collapsed in Prahran, crushing cars and injuring people. Nearby at North Melbourne, a few years later, strong wind toppled a facade wall; killing and injuring members of the public. Then also in 2019, apprentice Christopher Cassaniti lost his life on-site after yet another breach of workplace safety. Christopher had only just turned 18 years old 4 days prior. These and many stories should not need to be told.
Huge Scaffolding collapse in Prahran, Australia 2012 – Click Here
Court cases resulting from incidents like these reveal poor work practices:
– width of platforms reduced
– wall ties removed
– overloading of scaffolding structure
Practices found, such as stacking of bricks up to three times the safe limit in scaffold bays, is obviously not compliant with Australian standards. Never allow any unauthorised person to tamper or modify scaffold.
Following the death of her son, mother Patrizia Cassaniti was able to turn her grief into something positive, creating the foundation that can be found at:
www.touchedbychristopher.org.au
The Touched By Christopher foundation helps with essential services, such as provisioning of food, to families and loved ones of people who die at their place of work.
We all understand how tough it can be, just putting food on the table for your family and having a roof over your head. Don’t let these be reasons to take shortcuts on your work like any of the above safety breaches. Imagine if Christopher had been a part of your family – or if he were one of your workers. Workplace deaths change lives.
Scaffolding company fined $2 million for ‘catastrophic’ collapse that killed teen apprentice
Updated 21st of February 2023
On 25th November 2022, NSW District Court Judge Andrew Scotting found workers were put in “significant peril” and the collapse was the consequence of a “culmination of events”, including the unauthorised removal of building ties. The court heard the scaffolding was found to have a load of nearly 18-tonnes, in excess of its maximum capacity. The structure was holding 17,905kg but was only designed to hold 675kg, meaning it was nearly 30 times heavier than it’s maximum capacity. The scaffold was also constructed without vertical bracing.
“The overloading of the scaffold, the lack of vertical bracing, the removal of the ties and the removal of the transoms made the likelihood of the risk occurring so high that it was almost certain”.
The lack of bracing appears to be new detail released by the judge and is really quite shocking for us to hear about that. Such action is a clear breach in the duty of care owed towards all workers which is unethical and immoral.
Scaffolding Software would never like to see any business compromise on safety. Please make sure your scaffold is safe at all times. This is your responsibility towards all people who frequent a work site.
In addition, the court told that: “[The Company] still hasn’t done much to improve procedures”. This is a damning statement. We encourage you to consider how this conclusion could have been reached. Also, we take this opportunity to remind all our customers that continuous improvement, across all facets of the business, is the hallmark of any good enterprise which would expect to stand the test of time.
Regardless of what conclusions we all may draw, above all, it is most important to remember that our industry has lost a valuable respected young worker and very much loved son, Christopher Cassaniti.
If you wish to read or view more media links about the court case, which now has an outcome and a penalty to the Defendant, you may follow the links below:
ABC Print media:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-25/scaffolding-collapse-sentence-death-of-apprentice/101697908
For the Channel 7 news video report on this court case, please go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6DzSdvmB5w
Channel 9 News reported: “The 30m tower stacked with almost 18 tonnes of building materials and yet it was held up by a single tie and hadn’t been checked for three weeks”.
Keep your Scaffold Safe
The view from Scaffolding Software’s office.
Please remind everyone involved with construction:
NEVER MODIFY SCAFFOLD without written authorisation of a licensed scaffold installer.
NEVER REMOVE WALL TIES without careful consideration to safety.
NEVER OVERLOAD SCAFFOLD beyond its recommended capacity and continue to
MAKE SAFETY YOUR HIGHEST PRIORITY.
This applies to ALL TRADES that use or work ON or NEAR SCAFFOLDING.
Do not tolerate anyone who compromises the safety of scaffolding.
Please watch the video and do not let this happen at your scaffold site.
ScaffShield
ScaffShield is a revolutionary anti-tamper locking assembly which reduces the risk of scaffold ties and couplers from being detached from fixed scaffolding, thereby reducing scaffold collapse or failure leading to injury and disruptions.
Scaffolding Software wishes to promote safety in workplaces and offers links to web sites that promote safety at no charge.
“iScaf® has been brilliant for us. Previously, we were drawing scaffolds by hand, but now we have advanced to the ultimate level with clear, professional, computer-generated designs created in a fraction of the time.
We appreciate how iScaf® allows us to quickly make modifications and adjustments to the design, and it even generates the weights, raw rental price and sell price for the scaffold.”“We are now much more efficient, and iScaf® empowers us to grow and compete with some of the largest scaffold businesses in Australia. We thank Scaffolding Software for iScaf® and their outstanding service and support.”
Simon Gardner – Director of Proscaff Tasmania
“iScaf® has been at the core of our Estimating department for 10 years now and we have never looked back. It gives us the capability to create high quality scaffold plans for jobs of all sizes and complexity.
Our customers often praise us for the presentation of our scaffold plans which are easy to understand without a background of industry knowledge but also provide a high level of detail without being cluttered.
The range of tools iScaf® offers allows for accurate gear lists while reducing the workload of the estimator. We can rely on the gear iScaf® allocates to ensure the job gets built right and matches the plan.
The best part of iScaf® and the ASU subscription is how helpful the team are with support and customisation. Whenever we want to make custom tweaks to iScaf’s operation and output, the team help us customise our unique company module to ensure that the program works exactly the way we want it to. This allows us even greater control over the software, helping us distinguish ourselves from the competition.“
Nathan French – Estimating Manager (November 2023)
“The iRent® Inventory system performs an excellent service, allowing us to track inventory in the yard and on site. It also helps us tremendously with job costing. iScaf® has served us well for many years for drawings and estimating. We are very pleased with the service and support we receive from Andrew and the team at Scaffolding Software.”
Cindy Murphy – Manager Central Scaffolds (September 2021)
“We have been using the full Scaffolding Software product range for over five years now; to handle our drawings, quotations, rental management and invoicing.
During this time, Smartscaff has grown significantly and now operates in three states.
The iRent® and iScaf® suite of software has made us more efficient and productive. It allowed us to provide a better service and to be more responsive to our customers. The professional scaffold plans and 3D drawings supported by detailed documentation and quotations have really had a positive impact on our customers. The Inventory Control and Rental Management systems, including the web portal, have moved forward with us as we have expanded our operations. Our accounts department uses the MYOB interface which eliminates 4 hours of data entry each month.
We are more than pleased with the Return On Investment provided to us by Scaffolding Software’s product line.”
Robert Oberstar – Managing Director Smartscaff (May 2021)
Abitto Global Services Limited is a multi-disciplinary company committed to exceptional client satisfaction and quality service delivery. We offer comprehensive range of stand-alone and integrated services on time and on budget. Our area of specialization include, but not limited to Fabrication, Marine Services, Oil & Gas Services, Dredging, Scaffolding and Project Management. Founded in 2011, the company has grown to become a leader in the quality service delivery.
VISION STATEMENT :Our vision is to be the leader and clients’ first choice in quality, timely and cost-effective service delivery. iScaf® and iRent® are valuable tools to help us achieve our goals.
Project Management – Abitto Global (June 2019)
“The Scaffolding Software systems has performed very well for us for many years now. With iScaf®, we have enjoyed the many new features and the latest 2022 version continues to break new ground. We are really impressed with the latest upgrade. With iRent®, it does everything we need. It’s fast, rock solid and we have not needed to upgrade for quite some time. Scaffolding Software responds to our needs in the timely manner and I consider their support to be 1st class”Shane Wilson – Source Scaffolding (May 2022)
As a specialist scaffold design firm, we require software that assists us setting the highest possible standard in quality and accuracy for all our scaffold designs.The iScaf® software allows us to create high quality 2D and 3D designs that not only impress our clients but ensures the most accurate installation of scaffold onsite saving time and money.
Using our client’s 3D models of their buildings (and even a plane), iScaf® 9 has allowed us to design the scaffold and show a full 3D design allowing every angle of the scaffold to be examined before installation. This functionality is paramount to our success as a company.
Andrew and his team at Scaffolding Software are extremely knowledgeable, professional, and approachable. We look forward to working with Scaffolding Software into the future using their industry leading iScaf® software.
Mark Corkery – Managing Director – Scaffold Studio (March 2021)
Trademarks iScaf®, iRent® and iQuote® are registered trademarks of Techscaf Pty Ltd.
Techscaf Pty Ltd hearby grants Scaffolding Software Pty. Ltd. the worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable right to use these trademarks.