Adelaide, SA: Christian Brothers College faces charges over shocking hammer ball incident

A top Catholic school could be hit with fines of more than $1m over an incident which saw a student suffer catastrophic injuries after being hit by a hammer-throw ball.

In the shocking September 2024 incident, a student at Adelaide’s Christian Brothers College suffered head injuries and was left in a coma.

It happened at St Albans Reserve in Clearview, where students from the college were training for athletics events.

Now, two years later, SafeWork SA has laid charges against the school with allegations of a litany of failures in preventing the accident from happening.

Proceedings against Edmund Rice Education Australia Colleges Ltd, the college’s parent company, were lodged in the South Australian Employment Court earlier this month.

The health and safety watchdog alleges students were “exposed to risks to their health and safety while undertaking javelin and hammer throw activities in proximity to each other”.

“SafeWork SA alleges the school failed to provide adequate instruction or training to workers responsible for organising and supervising the athletics training and failed to ensure its safety policies and procedures were followed,” a SafeWork SA statement reads.

“It is further alleged the school failed to perform an adequate hazard identification and risk assessment for athletics training.

“It will be alleged the school failed to maintain a safe work environment.”

The school has been charged with a category two offence under the Work Health and Safety Act 2012.

SafeWork SA further alleges that the safety cage being used did not comply with industry safety standards and the two events — hammer throw and javelin — were being carried out too close to one another.

Should the school be convicted, it would face fines of up to $1.5m.

Christian Brothers College Adelaide has been approached for comment.