Court Summary - at a glance

Date of offence:
7 April 2016
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Final decision date:
 
Fine imposed:
$50,000

Safety lessons learned:
  1. Identify the risks associated with working at height in situations where work was being done on a single storey flat roof;
  2. Minimise the risk of working at height by isolating workers from the risk of a fall, for example through installing edge protection; and
  3. Ensure workers were trained in working at height and instructed in how the risk of working at height was to be controlled when a work task involved work at height

Defendant name:
Lindsay White Painters and Decorators Limited
 
Industry:
Building and construction
 
Date of offence:
7 April 2016
 
Facts in brief:
The Defendant is a company in the business of painting and decorating.

The Defendant was engaged to paint a block of flats. The flats were partially one storey, partially two stories in an ‘H’ shape. The middle section was one storey with a flat roof, and each end was two stories with a pitched rood. Each end of the first storey roof abutted the exterior walls of the second storey sections.

On the day of the incident, the victim, an employee of the Defendant, was tasked with washing down the second storey walls from the top of the single storey roof. While trying to un-snag a hose the victim was using, they misjudged their footing, stepping off the roof. The victim fell 2.8m down from the roof, through a glass table and onto the concreted ground below.

The victim suffered multiple complex facial lacerations and tissue loss from upper philtrum (top lip), requiring surgical intervention, and a fracture of the right radial head (elbow).
 
Offence section:
Sections 36(1)(a), 48(1) and (2)(c), of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015
 
Date(s) charged:

Court:
Oamaru - District Court
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Final decision date:
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Fine imposed:
$50,000
 
Maximum fine available:
$1,500,000
 
Reparation:
$20,000 ($19,343.60 emotional harm and $656.40 consequential loss)
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