Forestry system ‘sloppy’ - coroner
EXCLUSIVE
The mother of a man killed in a forestry incident says the full truth of her son’s death is yet to come out, despite the death being the subject of a manslaughter trial and a coronial hearing.
But a coroner has strongly criticised Kidd’s boss, despite a jury acquitting him of the manslaughter charge.
Lincoln Kidd, 20, died when a tree felled by his boss, Paul Burr, crushed him on the Aratangata forestry block between Foxton and Levin on December 19, 2013.
Burr, who was in a mechanical harvester, cut down three trees without looking around to see if anyone was nearby.
A fourth tree fell in an unexpected manner, crushing Kidd, who was 7 metres away from the harvester.
Burr was charged with Kidd’s manslaughter, a groundbreaking prosecution for the forestry industry, but found not guilty after a three-week jury trial.
However, he was ordered to pay $75,000 reparation to Kidd’s family and partner after pleading guilty to health and safety charges laid by Worksafe NZ.
Kidd’s parents, Lesley and Craig Kidd, have campaigned since their son’s death for the forestry industry to clean up its act, while also looking for answers to questions they had around his death.
Lesley Kidd said some answers had come from Coroner Tim Scott’s findings, but she felt the full truth had not come out.
The inquest heard evidence not presented at Burr’s manslaughter trial, she said.
One of the biggest differences was around Lincoln Kidd’s knowledge of forestry code, particularly the two-tree rule – something described at Burr’s trial as the ‘‘cardinal rule’’.
The coroner said he entered the inquest quite sure Lincoln Kidd knew the two-tree rule, requiring forestry workers to stand two tree lengths away from anyone cutting down a tree.
But by the end of the inquest, he was satisfied there was no basis on which to deem Kidd a competent forestry worker.
While Kidd had about three years’ experience in the bush, both Burr and his former boss, Murray Spiers, could not say how he knew the rule, the coroner said.
Ray Pakau was the only other person working on the block at the time.
‘‘The long and short of it is that Ray and Paul were making an unwarranted assumption about Lincoln’s degree of competence. ‘‘He was certainly not a total new chum, but ... he may not have known very much.’’
But Burr said Kidd knew the two-tree rule.
‘‘Lincoln knew the rules of the bush. He had been in it for four years. He knew the two-tree-length rule.’’
He said Kidd had worked for other people in the trade, and they said he was a confident bushman.
The coroner found seven ‘‘relatively simple things’’ that, if done, could have avoided Kidd’s death.
They included Burr making sure Kidd knew the two-tree rule, Burr using radios instead of communicating by cellphone and hand signals, Burr looking properly around him each time he went to cut a tree, Burr properly preparing a harvesting plan, and having proper meetings every day before work started.
‘‘Paul, at least on this job, operated a sloppy, casual system,’’ the coroner said.
‘‘I really don’t agree with him, that I ran a sloppy operation,’’ Burr said.
While Kidd got himself into a dangerous position behind Burr’s mechanical harvester, Burr could have avoided danger by checking after cutting each tree – something someone with a chainsaw was required to do.
‘‘It was only going to take a few seconds,’’ the coroner said.
‘‘Sadly, that was the difference between life and death for Lincoln, and the difference between a happy, relaxed future and a guiltridden future for Paul and Ray.’’