The families of two men killed when a trench collapsed at a Pipecon work site have been dealt another blow, after an unsuccessful attempt to get the Coroner's Court to look at wider industry safety standards.
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At a hearing at the Coroners' Court on Monday, lawyers representing the families of Charles Howkins, 34, and Jack Brownlee, 21, sought to have the inquest also look at industry standards and training around trench work, beyond its scope of the two men's deaths.
Mr Howkins and Mr Brownlee died in 2018 while working at a Pipecon construction site in the Winterfield estate in Winter Valley, after the collapse of a trench they were working near.
After the two deaths, Pipecon, the Ballarat-based builder responsible for the site, was brought to court by Worksafe Victoria, and paid a $550,00 fine after pleading guilty to safety negligence.
At Monday's Coroner's Court hearing, the court heard the families were left unsatisfied by the scope of the WorkSafe prosecution, and sought a more thorough examination of industry standards.
Coroner Leveasque Peterson however said an investigation of industry standards around trench work would go "beyond the remit" of the coroner's court and denied the application.
The inquest into the two deaths, pencilled in for June this year, will look into the circumstances surrounding the rescue attempt of Mr Brownlee, who was still alive when he was pulled from the collapsed rubble.
The inquest will also examine specifically the use of an excavator in digging up a hole to free Brownlee from the rubble, and whether it made things worse for Mr Brownlee, who died in hospital the day after.
Expert reports from geotechnical and geomechanical engineers have been tendered with the court about the forces the excavator would have had on Mr Brownlee.
Lawyer Dale Brown, who was representing the Brownlee family, told the court the family was also funding a separate geomechanical engineer to potentially write a report on the impact the excavator had on the Brownlee rescue.
Other parties present at the hearing included representatives from the CFA, WorkSafe, Fire Rescue Victoria, Ambulance Victoria, the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority, police, Pipecon and the United Firefighters Union.
The matter was adjourned until May 17 for another preliminary hearing ahead of the inquest beginning in June.
