53Interference with accident sites

53 Interference with accident sites

(1) A person must not interfere with a site, on a facility, where there is:

(a) an accident that causes the death of, or serious personal injury to, any person; or

(b) an accident that causes a member of the workforce to be incapacitated from performing work for a period of 3 days; or

(c) a dangerous occurrence;

before the completion of the inspection of the site by an OHS inspector.

Penalty: 20 penalty units.

(2) It is a defence to a prosecution for an offence against subregulation (1) that:

(a) the person was acting with the written or oral authority of an OHS inspector; or

(b) the person was acting, in a reasonable manner, for any of the following purposes:

(i) helping or rescuing a sick, injured or endangered person;

(ii) maintaining the safety of the facility or of persons at the facility;

(iii) reducing danger to the facility or to persons at the facility;

(iv) retrieving, or attempting to retrieve, the body of a dead person; or

(c) the operator has given the Safety Authority notice of, and a report about, the accident or dangerous occurrence under clause 41 of Schedule 7 to the Act, and an OHS inspector has not entered the facility where the accident or dangerous occurrence occurred in response to the notice within 3 working days of the operator giving notice to the Safety Authority.

Note Section 10.5 of the Criminal Code provides a defence of lawful authority.