A Victorian mechanics business has been convicted and fined $210,000 after a petrol tanker detached from a truck and killed three people including a four-year-old.
Heavy Mechanics Pty Ltd serviced the truck and trailer a week before it came loose and struck two vehicles on the opposite side of the road, killing Peta Cox, 67, as well as Lisa Turner, 33, and her four-year-old son Jack near Wodonga in August 2014.
The company on Wednesday faced the Victorian County Court, where Judge George Georgiou said it had shown "no remorse" because it had not pleaded guilty to one count of failing as an employer to ensure other people were not exposed to safety risks.
He said the trailer came loose because of wear to its bolt-in tow-eye coupling, and that the truck and trailer had driven about 354,000 kilometres since the part was last replaced in June 2011.
"The company failed to adopt a system of servicing the coupling,"Judge Georgiou said.
"The coupling needed to be replaced."
Court documents show two Heavy Mechanics employees serviced the truck and trailer a week before the crash.
The pair marked as complete the requirement to "check and report on the tow couplings (turntable and king pin) split and inspect".
They performed a tug test and stated the coupling did not reveal anything that required immediate action.
One of them said no wear was sighted on the inspection and the "whole tow hitch looked to be in normal working order".
However, prosecutor Andrew Palmer said the Heavy Mechanics employees failed to detach the prime-mover from the trailer and properly inspect the tow-eye coupling.
