Juice maker Nippy’s fined $120,000 for accident that saw Alex Trandafil’s scalp ripped off

A teenage girl’s entire scalp was ripped off in a horrific workplace accident at a juice factory.

Alexandra Trandafil, 18, was working as a shed hand when her hair became tangled in a machine at Nippy’s Waikerie packing and processing plant in South Australia in November 2020.

Ms Trandafil’s traumatised co-workers called an ambulance and she was rushed to Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Paramedics had to retrieve her scalp from the machine but only part of it could be reattached during emergency surgery.

‘She thought she was going to die,’ wrote Katherine Eaton, deputy president of the SA Employment Tribunal, in her finding. 

Ms Trandafil requires ongoing treatment and suffered permanent hair loss and scar tissue from the ‘preventable’ accident

‘…In an instant, her young and hopeful life flipped into shock, trauma, ongoing pain and disfigurement.’

It was the teenager’s first full-time job, taken on during a gap year to save money for an overseas trip. 

‘Despite the best efforts of the first responders and medical teams at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, attempts to reattach her scalp were only partially successful,’ the judgement said. 

Three years on, Ms Trandafil still requires treatment, which will continue, and she suffered permanent hair loss and scar tissue.

The tribunal heard that the factory’s managers phoned Ms Trandafil’s family, apologised and offered them $60,000 as ‘reparation’ and for the cost of travel to Adelaide for treatment.

Nippy’s Waikerie Producers Pty Ltd was fined $120,000, despite pleading guilty to a charge of failing its health and safety duty.

‘She endured not only the pain and shock of her physical injury, but the terror of looking up and seeing her hair and scalp hanging from the machine in front of her,’ Ms Eaton wrote.

The company was warned about the risks to workers from similar equipment seven years before the accident.

While the warning was not about the same piece of machinery that injured Ms Trandafil, the risks were ‘exactly the same’, the tribunal’s finding said.

Nippy’s was warned about the risks to workers seven years before the accident and fined $120,000 after Ms Trandafil’s hair became tangled in an ‘unguarded machine’

Paramedics had to retrieve her scalp from the machine but only part of it could be reattached during emergency surgery. Pictured: Nippy’s Waikerie packing and processing plant in South Australia

Nippy’s immediately made safety improvements to the factory and machinery.

But the tribunal found the injury was preventable and that Nippy’s failed to maintain a safe work environment and had no signs warning of the potential dangers.

Nippy’s also failed to provide any training to Ms Trandafil about the risks of working beside the conveyor belt. 

The company was also ordered to pay legal costs.