A company has been ordered to pay more than half a million dollars after a worker was paralysed from the neck down in a construction site accident.
Photo: 123RF
The man will never be able to walk again following the incident in Kerikeri when a boom lift slipped off a transporter in 2016.
In a reserved decision released by the Tauranga District Court yesterday, Supermac Group Resources Limited was fined $304,750 and ordered to pay reparation of $238,000.
WorkSafe said the worker was not trained to use the boom lift and was not wearing a restraining harness as he was working.
"We are seeing too many cases where workers are being injured because basic safety procedures laid down in industry and regulator best practice requirements are not being met," said Worksafe's chief inspector of specialist interventions Hayden Mander.
"Risks involved in using machinery are very easy to identify, and too many businesses are failing in their duty to keep their workers safe by not putting controls in place to manage the risks.
"In this case, the business should have trained the worker before he was allowed onto the machine, and should have ensured that a safety harness was available and worn.
"These are easy things to do. Supermac's failure to do them has left a worker paralysed from the chest down and facing the future knowing he will never be able to walk again."