13 June 2017

The critical importance of following industry guidelines and adequately assessing hazards and risks in the workplace was highlighted in today’s judgement of a large drainage contractor after an employee was run over by an excavator.

Hydrotech Limited pleaded guilty to one charge under section 6 of the Health and Safety in Employment Act (1992) for failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of its employees.

WorkSafe New Zealand’s investigation found that the company failed to carry out an adequate hazard and risk assessment for the task and did not identify appropriate control measures and communication systems, exclusion zones and a spotter.

Since the event the company has made some significant changes:

• the responsibility for filling in the on-site hazard register is now rotated through all staff, giving everyone a turn at identifying and mitigating risks on-site
• in-house training is run on a regular basis, ensuring their workers have continued education
• and staff are expected to present projects on the hazards and the controls that they identified.

“The company is to be applauded for the positive changes, but it should not have taken a life-changing incident to spur the company to change. Some very simple changes on the day would mean that the employee would have the full use of his legs today. Following industry guidelines would have removed the need for anyone to work close to the machine,” said WorkSafe Chief Inspector, Keith Stewart.

The company had agreed to pay $50,000 in reparations to the victim at an earlier restorative justice hearing. The company also paid a further $3,500 as a debt clearance payment and paid 20 percent of his pre-incident earnings to top up his ACC payments.

The company has also undertaken to retrain the victim to enable him back into full employment with the company.

Guidance on excavator safety is available here.