Court Summary - at a glance

Date of offence:
9 May 2014
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Final decision date:
 
Fine imposed:
$48,000

Safety lessons learned:
  1. Isolate the danger zone of the finger jointer by meanings of guarding in accordance with AS 4024 – Safe Guarding of Machinery.
  2. Establish procedures for carrying out the cleaning, maintenance or report of the machinery, including that any extension or attachment of the machine is secured against movement and every control device is secure in the inoperative position by the use of lock or lock-out procedures.

Defendant name:
Hume Pine (NZ) Limited
 
Industry:
Forestry
 
Date of offence:
9 May 2014
 
Facts in brief:
The defendant company is a manufacturer and supplier of quality mouldings and dressed products. The defendant owns a CombiPact 4 Finger jointing line (the finger jointer). The finger jointer essentially constructs small pieces of timber (called shook) into lengths of timber. Two workers stand on either side of the infeed conveyor and stack the bundles of shook into position so that the conveyor can take the timber two areas. The timber then moves onto another conveyor belt known as a transfer station, to another area where a forklift picks it up and takes it away.

On 9 May 2014, the finger jointer transfer belt had been stopping intermittently. The fault has been reported. The victim climbed up on the infeed conveyor and moved along the transfer station, checking the sensors as he went to see whether he could identify the fault. The transfer station started to operate and he fell from the transfer station, catching his calf and turning him in a semi-circle so that he landed on an upright position in the danger zone, grabbing onto the fence.

Laceration to right calf muscle which was deep enough to expose the tendons.
 
Offence section:
S6 Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992
 
Date(s) charged:

Court:
Rotorua - District Court
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Final decision date:
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Fine imposed:
$48,000
 
Maximum fine available:
$250,000
 
Reparation:
$5,000
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