Expert Reports

Providing sound incident investigation to assist the court

Unfortunately some incidents are subject to legal proceedings. The expert’s role is to analyse and shed light on the key issues so as to assist the court.

Our focus is on sound incident investigation to identify and determine the sequence of events, primary and secondary factors, the risk factors, human factor issues and control measures.

Ergowork has investigated fatalities and severe injuries over many years. By careful forensic analysis and consideration of all possible factors we have been able to identify hidden or obscure factors previously undetected, especially related to ergonomic or human factor aspects, body mechanics and stress limits.

Very careful analysis of timelines has helped identify the most likely and plausible actions or behaviours leading to the incident outcome and best opportunities for emergency intervention or prevention. Example: truck runover fatality – truck transporting bridge beam – trailer travelling at 0.5m/s – hazardous action – leaning over front wheel of trailer to adjust cable – steel toe cap trapped by wheel – steel toe cap prevented early awareness of pinch/entrapment and pulling foot free – reaction time for calling for help and response at least 1.5 seconds – by this time the wheel was at chest level on the fallen worker.

Many injuries arise from low forces but, when effects of momentum, acceleration, repetition or bodily reaction are taken into account – the stress or force can be determined to exceed tissue strength.

Slips and falls are assessed in detail as it is more than just floor slip resistance at issue. Ergowork examines the sequence of events, manner of fall, various factors, cleaning systems and other aspects as well as performing slip testing to Australian Standards.