Tasmanians who sell or serve alcohol should have to complete annual refresher training, a coroner has recommended after a Hobart man died following a heavy night of drinking at his local RSL.
Coroner Leigh Mackey made the recommendation after finding Dale Robert Pennicott died from positional asphyxia after drinking 15 stubbies of beer and four glasses of port at the Claremont RSL.
She recommended the Liquor Licensing Act 1990 and venue licensing conditions be changed to require responsible service of alcohol training to be refreshed each year.
“A requirement to attend a repeat, refresh or update of the course at regular intervals would assist and reinforce the importance of supplying alcohol responsibly and ensure that bar workers have sufficient knowledge and tools to recognise and intervene in a timely way when faced with an intoxicated patron,” Mackey said.
Responsible service training is currently a one-off course, with no requirement for workers to repeat it.
Pennicott, 65, was found dead on his kitchen floor at Rosetta on July 11, 2023.
His partner returned home around 1:15pm and found him slumped against a bench with blood pooled around him.
Mackey found he had fallen because of his intoxication, striking his head, likely on a cupboard handle, before losing consciousness and failing to protect his airway while sitting on the floor.
A post-mortem recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.316g/100ml, well above the level associated with severe impairment.
Pennicott had arrived at the RSL around 4:30pm on July 10 and left shortly after midnight.
CCTV showed him swaying from 6pm, walking unsteadily by 10:40pm and using furniture for support by 11:56pm.
A taxi driver who took him home helped him to his door after he stumbled and fell getting out of the car, later describing him as “intoxicated” and unsteady on his feet.
An alcohol service expert who reviewed the footage said staff should have offered him food and water, monitored him from 6pm and intervened by 10:40pm.
The club argued there were no “obvious triggers” for intervention, saying Pennicott was not “swaying uncontrollably” or “staggering”. Its licensee has since changed.
Mackey rejected that argument, finding his intoxication was obvious from at least 10pm.
A barman asked Pennicott not to drive home, but the coroner found more should have been done.
“In effect the RSL provided a venue in which Mr Pennicott was allowed, without intervention, to purchase and consume a significant volume of alcohol,” she said.
“I convey my sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Mr Pennicott.”
