$275,000 fine, $50,000 reparation over incident
A ROLLER driver who narrowly survived a 20m plunge down a cliff has “been to hell 10 times, 20 times”, a judge says.
The incident in May 2018 left the employee of Wilson Contractors (2003) Ltd with bones protruding from his leg and his foot almost severed, the Dunedin District Court heard in June.
Judge Kevin Phillips, in a recently released decision, fined the company $275,000 and ordered reparation to the victim of $50,000 along with more than $18,000 for consequential loss.
Wilson Contractors had been hired to level the shoulder of the road and install safety barriers along State Highway 6 between Frankton and Kingston.
The victim was tasked with operating a 7.5tonne roller to create a flat surface behind safety barriers for future maintenance work, when it slipped over the edge.
WorkSafe’s investigation found that the machine should not have been used so close to a steep dropoff, that the worker had no experience operating such a vehicle and did not hold a licence endorsement to operate rollers on public roads.
Prosecutor Anna Longdill told the court a supervisor — who knew the victim had never used such a machine before — watched him operate it for 10 minutes on a flat piece of road before allowing him to move to the hazardous area.
At the moment he slipped over the edge of the steep bank, his life changed forever, the victim told the court in a detailed statement.
As the roller careened down the bank, he recalled how it paused momentarily on a ledge.
The victim leaped out as the vehicle rolled another 10m past him.
As well as the grisly leg injuries, the victim broke several ribs and suffered a punctured lung.
He was winched up the cliff and airlifted to hospital, where he spent the next 18 days, he said.
During his first week of recovery, he underwent 11 blood transfusions and four operations.
Doctors told him if anything went wrong he could lose his leg.
While the surgeries were successful, recovery back at home was painful and arduous, the victim said.
And six months after the incident the nonunion of a bone fracture was discovered and a nail had to be removed from inside the leg.
The victim’s rehabilitation had to be restarted and he continued to attend frequent appointments for his injuries, the court heard.
“This man has been to hell 10 times, 20 times,” Judge Phillips said.
At the June hearing, counsel for Wilson Contractors Olivia Lund argued the company, which employed more than 100 staff, was forecast to take a huge financial hit because of Covid19.
Any fine, she said, would result in a loss of assets or staff.
“A fine is meant to hurt. It’s not meant to be easy,” the judge said.
WorkSafe head of specialist interventions Simon Humphries said it was the second incident in which the firm had allowed an unlicensed worker to operate a roller.
“The previous incident should have raised red flags . . . immediately,” he said.
“In this instance, not only was the worker unlicensed, it was also the wrong machine for the job. There was a high risk of the machine rolling over, in an area made up of narrow ground and a steep dropoff.”
In addition to the financial penalties, a work health and safety project order was imposed by the judge requiring Wilson Contractors to produce an article outlining lessons learned from the incident.