Fulton Hogan removed all Sanwa Seiki handbrakes from its vehicles in 2012 to eliminate the risk but did not ensure its subcontractors had done the same. (File photo). Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
A truck driver closing his cab door was probably all it took to dislodge a dodgy handbrake, sending the vehicle down Ngauranga Gorge and fatally striking a road worker.
This is the expert view in the summary of facts at Wellington District Court where roading company Fulton Hogan has appeared for sentencing over the death of 25-year-old, father-of-two Joji Bilo in March 2019.
"During the examination ... the brake lever could be released with a light touch of the plastic knob," it read.
"The most likely scenario was that the vibrations caused by closing the truck's door caused the lever to release."
During the inspection "the park brake failed every time it was tested - by applying the handbrake and closing the door".
It could have been worse: the runaway truck veered into a lane other with motorists just after 9pm, and a photo shows it going downhill behind a car, on one of the country's steepest sections of State Highway 1, scraping along the median barrier, before coming to a halt after 750m.
Fulton Hogan "exposed members of the public who were driving along SH1, adjacent to the worksite, to similar risks of death or serious injury", the summary said.
Similar health and safety charges against other companies and individuals, who effectively subcontracted to Fulton, were dropped.
The judge reserved his decision.
Joji Bilo's family told the court of their loss and pain.
"You can't have a broken heart and harbour anger," said Luisa Bilo, who now raises their seven and five-year-old children, with help from her mother Una, in a home Fulton Hogan's compensatory payments helped her buy.
She said her husband was "smart, fast, safe". "He would never leave myself and the kids."
That night, Joji had a measuring wheel, and was pacing out for a resealing job in the gorge, below the crest, and below several parked trucks.
The handbrake that gave way, called a Sanwa Seiki, had been the subject of numerous safety alerts since one failed in 2010, killing a man in Dunedin - but no recalls were ordered by Waka Kotahi until last year.
As his truck began to roll away, driver David Jenkins tried to get back in but fell and was seriously hurt.
"Mr Bilo did not see the driverless truck coming from behind him and was struck by it."
A colleague a bit further down the hill, leapt out of the way, then seeing the truck was heading towards other workers, ran, yelling at them.
"The truck missed them, entered the lane of SH1 that was open to traffic, collided with the median barrier and continued downhill."
A later check on the handbrake showed a valve on it was closed, applying the brake, but it was not in a locking position.
This was a known risk with this type of brake.
Fulton Hogan had removed all Sanwa Seiki handbrakes from its vehicles in 2012 to eliminate the risk. It did not ensure its subcontractors had done the same.
"We effectively failed Joji and we allowed that risk to come on to our site," Fulton Hogan managing director Cos Bruyn told the court.
"I'm truly sorry," he said, addressing Luisa Bilo, Joji's mother and brothers, and family members seated in court.
Its subcontractor Wellington Contracting had not got Fulton's approval for Shuttle Express to have its driver, Jenkins, on site, the court was told.
Fulton had its own risk protection measures on site, but not all subcontractors had received all the documents to do with these.
After the fatality, Fulton Hogan began lobbying, "calling for the industry to follow what [it] had carried out to its own fleet", its lawyer Paul Chisnall said.
He said that on the night of Joji Bilo's death, the truck was parked without its wheels turned away from the slope, and was not put in reverse gear. Either of these "would likely have prevented Joji's death" and the driver's injuries, Chisnall said.
The truck had passed its Certificate of Fitness (COF) three days before.
The expert view was the brake's faults were present during those checks, but there was no evidence the brake was disassembled for checking or maintenance.
Shuttle Express "had not serviced or maintained the park brake lever as specified" by the truck importer or NZTA safety bulletin, the summary said.
The brake was very loose. "Slapping the floor, to simulate the closing of the truck door, also released the brake."