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The Bassendean engineering firm where a worker was killed on Monday afternoon was fined more than $500,000 last year over a similar workplace death in 2019.
Emergency crews rushed to Hofmann Engineering about 2.50pm on Monday after a man, 45, was critically injured.
Three ambulances rushed to the scene under priority one, but were unable to save the man.
It is the second death in six years at the Alice Street company.
In 2019, a worker was killed when a piece of machinery weighing more than a tonne fell on him while he was working underneath it.
Hofmann Engineering subsequently pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing the death of a worker, and was fined in late 2024.
In that incident, the Perth Magistrates Court was told there was no manufacturer’s manual or maintenance logbook kept for the 40-year-old machinery, known as a welding manipulator, and the checks carried out were limited to checking buttons, ensuring the machine went up and down, and that it wasn’t making any unusual noises.
The court was told the welding manipulator had been unused for several years and kept in storage before being put back into service just months before the accident in May 2019.
Independent experts found the threads on nuts that were central to the mechanism’s raising and lowering were worn to such an extent that they were unable to maintain their load, while grease on a “screw drive” mechanism was so contaminated that it was having an abrasive, rather than lubricating, effect on the equipment.
Hofmann Engineering was fined $567,000 and made to pay $28,695 in court costs.
Following the accident, the company developed a guide to visually inspect lead screw and safety nuts on welding manipulators, and trained operators in a new safe operating procedure.
It also installed an emergency fall break system for welding manipulators to prevent the boom falling past a safe point, and uploaded and tracked the servicing and maintenance history of the eight machines at the workplace that used screw drive mechanisms.
WorkSafe is investigating Monday’s death and WA Police will prepare a report for the coroner.
Hofmann Engineering has been contacted for comment.
The family-run business are manufacturing specialists, with one of its more notable projects being the manufacture of 246 bogie frames for Metronet’s new C-series trains in 2020.
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