A Victorian rubber company has been fined $450,000 after a worker was struck in the head and killed while trying to clear a jammed machine. Jawad Mohammadi was working on a production line at The Elastomers factory in Melbourne’s southeast in 2021, when some rubber material became jammed. He entered what was known as the machinery’s danger zone to clear the material, on May 26, and his co-worker restarted the machine before he could leave the area.
He noted Mohammadi’s co-worker would not have been able to see him in the danger zone from where he had to restart the machine. The worker’s son described Mohammadi in a statement to the court as a remarkable person who had a strong bond with everyone. Rozen said it was not a failure of the co-worker but rather the company’s practices, as the business should have been proactively assessing whether the machinery was safe.