1Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic), offences are risk-based not outcome-based: the prosecution need not prove that a specific accident was caused by the alleged safety breach, only that an identified risk existed and reasonably practicable measures to eliminate or reduce it were not taken (applying DPP v Vibro-Pile (Aust) Pty Ltd (2016) 49 VR 676).
2Where both prosecution and defence experts agreed on the existence of an inherent risk (here, under-torqued wheel nuts on heavy vehicles), a jury conviction was open even if the jury rejected the prosecution expert's opinion on the cause of a specific incident relied upon as evidence of that risk.
3The reasonable practicability of a safety measure (here, wheel nut indicators costing approximately $2.50 each) is assessed by reference to the s 20(2) OHSA calculus; the fact that a measure is not mandated by industry guidance or regulation does not preclude a finding that it was reasonably practicable, particularly where the employer itself adopted the measure after the relevant incident.
