One of Australia’s largest transport and logistics companies has been fined $807,500 after a worker was crushed by a one-tonne pallet on a live conveyor at a Sydney facility — an incident the court described as involving a risk that was “readily foreseeable, even obvious.”

Toll Transport Pty Ltd was sentenced in the Industrial Court of New South Wales on 28 October 2026 after pleading guilty to a Category 2 WHS offence under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW). The fine was imposed by SafeWork NSW following an investigation into an incident at Toll’s Banksmeadow facility on 20 December 2022.

A worker had been using a crowbar to try to free a stuck pallet when a 1.31-tonne pallet was pushed by the moving conveyor, knocking him over and pinning his left leg against a turntable. The worker sustained serious injuries.

The court noted that the risk presented by the live conveyor was not only foreseeable — it was obvious. Critically, Toll’s history of WHS compliance did not support leniency: the company had 13 prior WHS convictions recorded between 1999 and 2025, spanning a period of more than two decades.

Toll received a 15% discount on its base penalty of $950,000 for entering a guilty plea approximately six weeks before a scheduled seven-day hearing. The company spent approximately $416,000 on engineering modifications following the incident, after removing the bag line from service.

Toll retains a right of appeal against the sentence.

The case is a stark reminder that even the largest, most experienced operators can fail in basic machinery safety — and that a track record of prior offences will be considered by courts in determining an appropriate penalty. For safety managers in logistics and warehousing, the Banksmeadow incident underlines the importance of never leaving conveyor systems operational when workers need to access them for maintenance or fault-clearing.