A TRAGEDY DOWN UNDER Every parent who has ever lost a son or daughter will know the intense anguish and pain it can bring, especially when their passing is due to the negligence of others. Patrizia Cassaniti is one such mother, who will never be able to hug her son again. The reaction to her loss, however, has served as a real inspiration to others as she continues to change the way we look upon safety in the workplace. This is her story
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pprentice Christopher Cassaniti couldn’t wait to get to his dream job in Sydney on a bright autumn morning in April of 2019. The popular apprentice had celebrated his 18th birthday just four days earlier. The world it seemed had many wonderful things lined up for a youngster many looked upon as a role model for his own generation. Within hours, Christopher was lying face down, struck by the scaffolding he was working beside as he formed up a planter box, at the Macquarie Park site in the city. The tragedy was compounded by the fact that the heavy debris had been acting as a torniquet due to its weight. Even if rescuers could have got to him in time, when the weight had been lifted from his body Christopher would almost certainly have bled out. Medics confirmed death would have occurred within 20 minutes due to asphyxiation. In fact, an artery in his pelvis had been severed, such was the impact of the falling debris. Another 39-year-old co-worker was also seriously injured in a collapse caused by the fact that all the ties had been removed and it was overloaded by 18 tonnes. After Christopher’s accident the regulator SafeWork NSW went on an inspection spree calling it Operation Scaffsafe. They inspected more than 700 sites to check on scaffolds and found that 44% of them had components missing; 34% of the sites said it was because unlicensed workers had removed them. It emerged the pair had worked through their lunch break to
finish some extra work when the collapse happened. They had been working from the bottom level of scaffolding when the structure suddenly gave way. Another two workers were laying bricks at the top of the structure and were able to jump to safety. Sadly, concerns were raised about the safety of the Ganellen construction site in Macquarie Park more than a year before Mr Cassaniti was killed. The company was eventually fined $900,000 for the worksite accident. In fact, numerous emails obtained by a local news programme revealed repeated safety warnings were made by scaffolding company Synergy to Ganellen. The whole horrific episode left Christopher’s mother, Patrizia, and family in complete turmoil, left to manage the constant pain of losing someone so young, generally known as a shining light to everyone he encountered. Incidents like this can destroy the whole fabric of family life within minutes, turning personal worlds upside down and leaving a trail of emotional devastation in their wake as Christopher’s dad, Robert, explained: “Losing my son Christopher is like losing the whole right side of my body. Christopher was my right-hand man. Always there to help around the house, whether it was with the lawns, washing cars or general house duties. “As a toddler, Christopher would follow me around the garden with a tool in his hand, just wanting to help me with whatever I was doing. Christopher had the biggest heart and a smile to match. People would always compliment us on what a good-natured and honest young man he was. After leaving school he got an apprenticeship with Future Form. Christopher loved his job, and his workmates loved him. They would often
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