A coal mine employee might be sued for allegedly colliding with anti-mining protestors while he was behind the wheel in Central Queensland’s Galilee Basin.
Lawyers are considering potential legal action after accusing a Bravus Mining Resources worker of driving a vehicle into protestors who blocked access to a works depot at the $2 billion Carmichael Coal Project in Belyando, 435km west of Mackay.
Alleged hit and run
Retired lawyers Barbara Guthrie and Maureen Singshott claim the Bravus (formerly known as Adani) work vehicle collided with Frontline Action on Coal supporters near Gregory Development Road, and the driver did not stop to exchange details on March 24.
“[At 5:45am the vehicle] slowed to turn off into the access area then accelerated and drove straight at the banner holders, knocking one woman to the ground, narrowly missing the car tyres in motion. The driver continued without pausing or stopping,” the pair said on Facebook.
Car weaponised
Guthrie and Singshott allege the mine worker was completely aware of the demonstrators and showed little regard for their welfare.
“The driver’s action was clearly deliberate, the area was flood-lit, visibility was high and there was ample time to stop. The driver used the car as a weapon to break through the human barrier blocking access to the work site,” they said.
Lawyers claim their clients recorded details of the work vehicle and have already forwarded that information to authorities for further investigation.
“There were many witnesses to the assault, including Adani workers. We have provided the police with the driver’s car registration number and expect serious charges to be laid,” they said.
Activist cut and bruised
One woman, who claimed to be involved in the accident, complained about having to seek hospital treatment for “cuts, abrasions and bruising from the impact”.
“She was fortunate not to sustain more serious physical injuries. As it was, she was extremely shaken and shocked that the driver chose to run into a group of peaceful protestors,” Guthrie and Singshott said.
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Please ‘stop doing this’
Bravus previously pleaded with activists to stop unnecessarily putting themselves in danger.
“Activists who trespass on our construction site have no idea of the dangers of being around heavy construction equipment,” the proponent said in a public statement.
“Everyone who enters our site undertakes full safety inductions, and complies with safety procedures to ensure their own safety and that of those around them – this is why activists who enter our site illegally are putting themselves and our workers in danger. We plead with them for their own safety to stop doing this.”
while your at it sue the people that held up production, no different to robbing a bank rob a bank bank looses money stop production at a mine, mine looses money lock em up I say
I wonder how many of them would still choose to lock themselves onto equipment if they copped the bill for lost production… Committing Trespass and putting themselves in danger then playing the victim card when something goes wrong is pure stupidity… If these Muppets get away with suing someone else for their own stupidity then there really is no justice in the world, the person driving the car is being made out to be a crazed madman when the real lunatics are the ones who ran out in front of the car to begin with.