RACQ patrol driver called out to fix a flat tyre was repeatedly punched in the face. But he was the one sacked
The Fair Work Commission has ruled in favour of a RACQ for firing an employee who was punched up to eight times in the face by a tow truck driver.
It handed down its verdict this week after the former recovery truck driver, who previously worked as a skills and tactics instructor with Queensland Police - claimed he was unfairly dismissed.
The commission heard the recovery truck driver responded to an incident last October that was initially described as a flat tyre.
However, the RACQ worker realised quickly upon arrival that the tyre had been forced into the wheel arch.
While he marked out a work area with traffic cones, two truck drivers approached and claimed the car owner clearly had an accident and that it was off-limits for RACQ.
RACQ is only authorised to tow vehicles that have broken down, not vehicles involved in accidents.
Their interaction was captured on two cameras inside the RACQ worker's vehicle.
One of the tow truck drivers attempted to talk with the worker, who in turn called his company's dispatch.
The worker told the dispatch operator the driver had suffered a severed ball joint and made passive aggressive remarks within earshot of the truck driver.
Those included asking the operator to call police because the tow truck driver was 'in my work site and he won't get out of here'.
The tow truck driver responded by saying: 'I have every right to be here mate.'
Later in the conversation, the RACQ worker was heard saying 'he's being non-compliant so yeah, he's obstructing' to which the truck driver said, 'Obstructing, yeah right'.
The situation escalated after the worker was heard saying 'don't touch the car'.
The truck driver was heard responding '… you put your hand on me and we will walk to the corner right now' and 'Get your [expletive] hands off me mate'.
Footage showed at that moment, the tow driver had bent down to inspect the busted wheel and the RACQ worker pushed him backwards with two hands.
The men then moved off the road and onto a footpath, where the worker swept the tow truck driver's legs from underneath him.
He dragged the worker with him as he fell and rolled on top of him before punching the RACQ worker 'in the face seven or eight times'.
Finally the second tow truck driver was able to intervene and end the scuffle.
'Following the physical altercation, the men continued their discussions and ultimately the [worker] disconnected the RACQ vehicle and left the scene for the tow truck driver to recover the vehicle,' Fair Work Commission documents stated.
The worker later told a dispatch operator that the owner of the damaged car only 'admitted' it'd been in an accident after he'd arrived at the scene.
A representative from RACQ claimed the worker had gone against his training and escalated tensions with the truck driver.
'One would question what exactly he expected would happen when he pushed the tow truck driver. It's not known as a shrinking violet industry,' they said.
Fair Work Deputy President Lake agreed and added it was unprofessional for the worker to behave in such a way while representing his company.
'The RACQ member was standing a few metres away from the [worker] during his discussion with the tow truck driver,' he said.
'Instead of confirming with the RACQ member whether the vehicle was involved in an accident and stepping away from the situation, in accordance with his training, [he] took it upon himself to place himself between the tow truck driver and the vehicle.
'It was perfectly open to [him] to explain to the tow truck driver, using his words, that the vehicle may have a broken ball joint and that touching the vehicle could be dangerous.
'Instead, [he] simply issued 'directions' to the tow truck driver to move away and then pushed him.'
Deputy President Lake concluded the worker had violated RACQ's policies during the incident and was fairly sacked.
'Furthermore, causing the tow truck driver to fall backwards onto the concrete could have seriously injured him,' he said.
'This was done in front of a client whilst wearing [RACQ's] uniform, next to [RACQ's] recovery truck, in full view of the passing public.'
The deputy president dismissed the worker's unfair dismissal application.
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Darren says he believes his brother would not have accepted mental health treatment and probably would have found a way to take his life, even if the bars had been removed. But what he can't abide is the state government's failure to act on repeated warnings to remove the obvious hanging points, including after his brother's death. 'They're more or less handing them the rope,' he says. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at
The Guardian
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Guardian Australia has spent five months investigating the deadly toll of Australia's inaction to remove hanging points from its jails, a key recommendation of the 1991 royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody. The main finding – that 57 inmates died using known ligature points that had not been removed – was made possible by an exhaustive examination of coronial records relating to 248 hanging deaths spanning more than 20 years. Reporters combed through large volumes of coronial records looking for instances where a hanging point had been used repeatedly in the same jail. They counted any death that occurred after prison authorities were made aware of that particular hanging point. Warnings were made via a prior suicide or suicide attempt, advice from their own staff or recommendations from coroners and other independent bodies. Guardian Australia also logged how many of the 57 inmates were deemed at risk of self-harm or had attempted suicide before they were sent into cells with known hanging points. In adherence with best practice in reporting on this topic, Guardian Australia has avoided detailed descriptions of suicide. In some instances, so that the full ramifications of coronial recommendations can be understood, we have made the decision to identify types and locations of ligature points. We have done this only in instances where we feel the public interest in this information being available to readers is high. The worst offender was Queensland's Arthur Gorrie correctional centre, where 10 prisoners killed themselves using the same type of ligature point – exposed bars that authorities knew about but failed to remove. The hangings continued until 2020 despite coronial warnings as early as 2007 that the state government 'immediately make available sufficient funding to enable the removal of the exposed bars'. The same coroner had told authorities the bars 'could easily be covered with mesh' following an earlier death. The same failure was repeated across the state, at Townsville correctional centre, where two inmates were able to hang themselves from known ligature points, and at Ipswich's Borallon correctional centre, where two others died in an almost identical way. The problem is not isolated to Queensland. At the Darwin correctional centre cells were equipped with overhead fixtures that could bear body weight, creating what coroners called a 'classic' hanging point. They were used in two deaths within two years of the prison's opening in 2014 and were not completely removed until 2020. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email In South Australia the Guardian found 14 deaths from hanging points that were known but not removed, including at the Adelaide remand centre. At least five prisoners have hanged themselves from fixtures at Hakea prison in Western Australia, despite warnings to the state government as early as 2008 it should address all obvious ligature points. Sydney's Long Bay correctional complex recorded five hangings from bars between 2000 and 2017, despite a warning in 2009 that the 'obvious' hanging points had to be removed. Across New South Wales the Guardian identified 20 deaths from hanging points known to authorities but not removed, including at Goulburn, Parklea, Bathurst and Cessnock prisons. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Guardian Australia asked every state government what has been done to address the problem. You can read their responses in full here. The revelations have prompted renewed calls for action from victims' families. Cheryl Ellis lost her son, Gavin, to suicide in the Darcy unit of the metropolitan remand and reception centre in Sydney's Silverwater prison complex in 2017. The 31-year-old had a longstanding psychotic illness and was a known suicide risk. In his first three days in custody he tried to hang himself twice but was not seen by a mental health clinician for eight days and was not reviewed by a psychiatrist for six weeks. He was sent to a cell with a hanging point – a set of window bars. Another inmate had died by hanging from window bars in the Darcy unit two years earlier. The bars remained in the unit cells after Gavin's death and were used in a third suicide in 2020. The inquest into Gavin's death recommended that all obvious hanging points be removed but delays in the coronial system meant that recommendation did not come until two years after the third suicide. The NSW government would not say whether the bars have now been removed. Cheryl says her son should never have been sent to that cell. She also says the hanging points should not have been allowed to remain in the Darcy unit cells after Gavin's death. 'The system does not have capital punishment yet it leaves hanging points for inmates to use,' she said. Official data shows suicide by hanging remains the most common cause of self-inflicted death in custody. Considerable progress was made to reduce the rate of hanging deaths in the late 1990s and early 2000s. That progress has stalled since 2008, the data shows. The continued presence of known ligature points is just one factor contributing to hanging deaths. The 248 deaths investigated by the Guardian often involve multiple failings, including breakdowns in psychiatric assessments and a failure to provide proper mental health care, the lack of suitable beds in secure mental health facilities, the absence of proper observation regimes and mistakes in information sharing and cell placement. Deaths in custody continue to disproportionately affect Indigenous Australians, who remain vastly overrepresented in prison populations. Seven Indigenous Australians hanged themselves in 2023-24, a number not recorded since 2000-01. Robert Tickner, the former Labor federal Indigenous affairs minister, led the Australian government's response to the 1991 royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody. He helped to secure the agreement of state and territory governments to remove hanging points from their prisons, something he describes as a 'no brainer'. 'There can be no excuses for the failure to act,' he said. 'My very strong view is that the ultimate buck stops with the commissioners of corrections and governments.' Michael Barnes, a former state coroner in Queensland and New South Wales, said the number of deaths from known ligature points was 'astounding'. 'It's hard to think that it's anything other than a lack of commitment that can explain the continuing high rate.' In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Indigenous Australians can call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for information and crisis support. Other international helplines can be found at
