Huntingdale Mobile Cranes has been fined $70,000 and put future contracts at risk for failing to ensure that simple safety checks were done.

The company plead guilty in the County Court to failing to provide a safe workplace for employees and people other than employees and was sentenced late last week.

Judge Philip Coish was told that the company had not checked to ensure that locating pins were fitted under a concrete panel its crane had lifted into position. It had also not ensured that steel support bracings on the panels were correctly positioned and locked into position. As a result, the concrete panel fell when the steel braces were removed. A reservoir man was killed when he was hit by the panel.

Huntingdale Mobile Cranes is one of three companies charged in relation to safety failings at the construction site in Hogan St, Pakenham.

"There have been many serious incidents involving panels falling in conditions ranging from strong winds to inadequate attention to detail when they're being put up or the removal of props. They're not all fatalities or even lead to injury, but the consequences are at best disruptive and at worst lead to a death affecting hundreds of people," said the director of WorkSafe's Construction and Utilities Division, Chris Webb.