Court Summary - at a glance

Date of offence:
5 November 2020
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Final decision date:
 
Fine imposed:
The starting point was set at $530,000. Following discounts of 50%, the fine was reduced to $265,000

Safety lessons learned:

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 Andre Nieuwoudt, while the workers were at work, including servicing or repairing a Harvester Head logging machine, did fail to comply with that duty and that failure exposed workers to a risk of death or serious injury.

It was reasonably practicable for Waratah Forestry Services Limited to have:

  • Adequately educated/trained its field technicians about the risk and controls required for safely testing the Harvester Head.
  • Adequately monitored its field technicians all workers to correct any unsafe practices.

Defendant name:
Waratah Forestry Services Limited
 
Industry:
Forestry
 
Date of offence:
5 November 2020
 
Facts in brief:
A field technician was carrying out repairs to a Harvester Head, a machine used in logging to debark logs that that have been felled. The worker was standing inside the arms of the machine whilst completing this work. He manually spun a measuring wheel in the machine activating the top delimb knives which closed upon him. He received crushing injuries to his chest as well as cuts to his back and the back of his head. While assistance was called Mr Nieuwoudt died from these injuries.
 
Offence section:
Sections 36(1)(a) and 48(1) and (2)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015
 
Date(s) charged:
3 November 2021

Court:
Auckland - District Court
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Final decision date:
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Fine imposed:
The starting point was set at $530,000. Following discounts of 50%, the fine was reduced to $265,000
 
Maximum fine available:
$1.5 million
 
Reparation:
Emotional harm - $80,000
Consequential loss - $191,081
Costs:
Legal costs - $3011.25
Investigation costs - $1,505.62 (half of total costs)
 
Related Documents:
PDF
WorkSafe New Zealand v Waratah Forestry Services Limited (PDF 235 KB)
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