Onkar Group Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in Shepparton County Court to recklessly placing a person at a workplace in danger of serious injury, failing to provide and maintain a safe working environment for employees, and failing to ensure people other than employees weren’t exposed to risks to their health or safety.
The Keysborough company’s director, Maninder Singh Nagi, also pleaded guilty to two charges of being an officer of a body corporate that failed to take reasonable care.
Prosecutor Karen Argiropoulos SC told the court 27-year-old delivery driver Rohallah Khashee died in a crash on the Goulburn Valley Hwy, Kialla West on August 17, 2022.
The Volkswagen Crafter delivery van he was driving drifted across double white lines and collided with a truck carrying two empty shipping containers while travelling south in the 100km/h zone at about 12.49pm.
Mr Khashee had been employed as a subcontractor to collect baked goods and make overnight deliveries to businesses between the Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh South and Albury.
Mr Kahshee would make between 18 and 24 deliveries a night, driving about 796km, for 10 hours and 54 minutes, not including travel to and from his home, time taken to make deliveries or rest breaks.
Ms Argiropoulos said on the day of the fatal crash Mr Kahshee had made 21 deliveries, beginning in Oakleigh South at 12.39am and finishing just over 12 hours later at 12.40pm in Shepparton.
The court heard he had worked 17 days in a row before the crash, with most of his shifts being more than 12 hours.
After attending the workplace, WorkSafe inspectors believed Onkar failed to provide a system of work for fatigue management of delivery drivers, and issued improvement notices.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Somaia Kahshee — Mr Kahshee’s wife — said her world would “never be the same”.
Ms Kahsee described her husband as her “partner, protector and foundation of our family”, and his death had left a devastating impact and “unbearable” grief.
“Without him we are lost,” she said.
“The emptiness left behind is overwhelming.”
She said his death had also left her in an “unimaginable financial position”, and her family’s “future is uncertain”.
Defence barrister for Onkar Group Dermott Connors said the business was a “small family company” and that it was remorseful.
The court heard Onkar Group employed about 30 drivers as subcontractors to collect baked goods and deliver them.
Mr Connors told the court Nagi thought delivery drivers were responsible for their own behaviour because they were employed as subcontractors.
He said the company hadn’t taken the “cheaper, more convenient option” to comply with WorkSafe the improvement notices, and had since installed GPS and dashcams in all of its vehicles.
The plea hearing will continue when Nagi and Onkar Group next face court in August.
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