The Director of Public Prosecutions only has a few months in which to bring charges in relation to the Hillcrest Primary School Tragedy, in which six children died after an inflatable jumping castle was blown into the air in 2021.
The Work Health and Safety Act requires any prosecution to be started within two years of Worksafe Tasmania being notified, which will expire on December 16th this year, the second anniversary of the tragedy.
Worksafe Tasmania handed its investigation to the DPP in February, with the file including thousands of documents.
ACM reports the DPP says a decision on a prosecution or not will be made within the required timeframe.
An inquest into the tragedy was expected to start in the Devonport Magistrate’s Court in April this year, but has been delayed after Worksafe Tasmania took Supreme Court action to prevent the coroner access to the files because it believed disclosure of certain details could prejudice any potential prosecution under work health and safety laws.
