The employer waited nine months to act on the crash - and the delay counted against it
A hospital worker whose car crashed into an emergency department entrance can't be sacked over it yet - a tribunal has blocked it for now.
A long-serving administrative worker cannot be dismissed over a car crash in a hospital's ambulance bay - at least for now. On July 8, 2026, the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales blocked her employer from acting on that specific threat while her case is heard.
The worker had spent 22 years with South Western Sydney Local Health District, most recently as an administrative officer in a hospital emergency department. In August 2025, she drove into the ambulance bay to collect a forgotten coat. She thought the car had stopped when she got out. It kept rolling and struck the glass doors at the entrance. The fact of the crash isn't disputed; whether she was at fault is.
Nine months later, a show-cause letter dated May 5, 2026 proposed findings that the incident amounted to "serious misconduct" and raised the prospect of termination. The letter put the repair cost at "$20,709.20" and quoted a remark she was said to have made to a colleague: "I wasn't trying to kill you by the way."
Instead of waiting to be dismissed, the worker treated the letter as a threat to sack her and filed an unfair dismissal application. Through the Health Services Union, she also brought a separate victimisation claim, arguing the disciplinary action was tied to...
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