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Court Summary - at a glance

Date of offence:
24 August 2020
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Final decision date:
 
Fine imposed:
Starting point of $450,000, reduced to $270,000 following mitigation

Safety lessons learned:

Westown Agriculture Limited

Between 16 July 2019 and 24 August 2020, at New Plymouth, being a PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking) who manages or controls a workplace, namely 180 Cowling Road, New Plymouth (the Site), having a duty to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that the workplace and anything arising from the workplace was without risks to the health and safety of any person, including Grant Bowling, did fail to comply with that duty, and that failure exposed any individual to a risk of death or serious injury.

It was reasonably practicable for Westown Agriculture Limited to have:

  • Developed and implemented an effective safe system of work to manage the risk of interactions between pedestrians and mobile plant, including an interim traffic management plan for the Site.
  • Effectively consulted, co-operated, and co-ordinated with Westown Haulage Limited and [third defendant] as to traffic management at the Site.

Westown Haulage Limited

Between 16 July 2019 and 24 August 2020, at New Plymouth, being a PCBU having a duty to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers who work for the PCBU, including Grant Bowling, while workers were at work in the business or undertaking, did fail to comply with that duty, and that failure exposed workers to a risk of death or serious injury from the interaction between workers and mobile plant at the Site.

It was reasonably practicable for Westown Haulage Limited to have:

  • Ensured there were effective controls in place at the Site to manage the risk of interaction between its workers and mobile plant.
  • Designed and implemented a safe system of work for the safe use of mobile phones at the Site.
  • Effectively consulted, co-operated and co-ordinated with Westown Agriculture Limited and [third defendant] as to traffic management at the Site.

Defendant name:
Westown Agriculture Limited and Westown Haulage Limited
 
Industry:
Agriculture
 
Date of offence:
24 August 2020
 
Facts in brief:
The Westown group moved to a new work site in July 2019. No traffic management plan was put in place to separate pedestrians from mobile plant.

On 24 August 2020, worker Grant Bowling was standing in the wash bay, using his mobile phone to sign out for the day. His colleague had been washing down a telehandler and was going to move it into a shed. His colleague got distracted and was looking backwards, ran into Mr Bowling and collected him in the scoop of the telehandler, knocking him unconscious. He was in hospital for three days, suffered bifrontal intracerebral and subdural hemorrhages and was unable to work for eight months.
 
Offence section:
Westown Agriculture Limited - Section 37(1), 48(1) and 48(2)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015
Westown Haulage Limited - Section 36(1)(a), 48(1) and 48(2)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015
 
Date(s) charged:
13 December 2021

Court:
New Plymouth - District Court
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Final decision date:
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Fine imposed:
Starting point of $450,000, reduced to $270,000 following mitigation
 
Maximum fine available:
$1.5 million
 
Reparation:
Emotional harm - $50,000
Consequential loss - $6,806
Costs:
$4,627.60 - half of legal costs
$7,500 - expert traffic management report