KiwiRail, firm fined over ferry accident

Two companies have been fined and ordered to pay reparation to a truck driver who spent about a minute pinned between two trucks while a KiwiRail ferry was being loaded in Wellington.

KiwiRail was fined $240,500 and the man’s employer, Higgins Tow Services, was fined $174,000 in Wellington District Court on Monday.

The driver, Trevor Carelse, 60, spent three nights in hospital after being injured on October 24, 2020, and Judge Ian Mill was told he was now an accident compensation beneficiary and in constant pain.

His ribs were fractured, and his shoulder, hips and knees were also injured. He tried returning to work but after several months he stopped due to the continuing effect of his injuries.

The judge said KiwiRail had to pay him $34,800 and Higgins $23,200 in emotional harm reparation and to repay extra expenses he had incurred since being injured.

The judge said Carelse was a supervisor for Higgins and should not have been walking between his truck and a moving truck but no designated walkway was available to him at the time.

He was moving between two trucks when one of them started to move. He was pinned for about a minute before the truck driver was told to reverse.

A later review found others also walked around moving vehicles, including elderly and child passengers.

KiwiRail pleaded guilty to failing to take reasonably practicable steps to avoid exposing workers to the risk of harm, failing to notify the safety regulator of an event, and failing to preserve the site of an event.

WorkSafe was first notified of the injury but later in the day it was realised Maritime NZ should have been told.

Higgins Tow Services pleaded guilty to failing to take reasonably practicable steps to avoid exposing workers to the risk of harm and failing to notify the safety regulator. The firm had a contract to load and unload trucks from Interislander ferries.

Carelse’s victim-impact statement read to the court said he was in constant pain, it hurt to breathe, and he could not even kneel to pray. He was still having ACC-funded treatment twice a week and was unemployed. While ACC met some costs it did not cover the overtime he would have earned or incidental costs. He sold belongings and took in boarders to make ends meet, the court was told.

His wife and adult daughters lived in the United States and he was to have joined them but due to Covid restrictions and his need for ongoing treatment, he had not yet done so.

The statement said Carelse was hurt at Higgins’ attitude towards him after the accident, even though he had been his employer’s right-hand man for more than a decade.

Last December Higgins gave him $2000. At first Higgins asked for the $2000 to be deducted from the emotional-harm payment the court ordered but then withdrew the request after the judge suggested it was a ‘‘bit tough’’. Higgins’ lawyer, Daniel Erickson, said Carelse was given other miscellaneous cash payments and vouchers, as well.

After the sentencing Carelse and his former boss, Patrick Higgins, hugged in court. Carelse said they were okay for the future.

The prosecutor for Maritime NZ, Rufus Hancock, said that although the scene of the accident had not been preserved as it should have been, Maritime NZ had had access to CCTV footage for its investigation.

The judge said while the businesses had safety policies in place they were apparently not being implemented. The driver in the truck when Carelse was injured had not been given a proper induction into the rules.

KiwiRail’s lawyer Paul Wicks, KC, said it was now monitoring compliance with its operating procedures.

KiwiRail’s InterIslander ferry Kaitaki was being loaded in October 2020 when a truck driver was injured.