Waste Management New Zealand has been ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars after its health and safety failings left a worker with a broken arm.
Waste Management New Zealand was found guilty at a trial in August held at the Hamilton District Court. Photo: RNZ
The company was found guilty at a trial in August held at the Hamilton District Court and was sentenced this week.
In November 2017, the worker was operating a tyre shredder at the company's Kerepehi site.
When debris obstructed the conveyor belt to the tyre shredder, the worker attempted to remove it while the machine was running and his arm became trapped. The worker was unable to activate the emergency stop, but eventually managed to free his arm.
As a result of the incident, the worker suffered degloving injuries and a broken forearm.
A WorkSafe investigation found guarding was missing from the conveyor belt which fed tyres into the machine, as it had been removed for modification. Despite having no machine guarding, the machine was still in use.
WorkSafe's area manager Danielle Henry said not only was it unacceptable that the machine was being used without guarding, there was no safe system of work in place.
"There was an emergency stop button, but its location meant it couldn't be reached if a worker became trapped in the machine, which is what happened in this incident," Henry said.
"As well as this at the time of the incident the victim was operating the machine alone, when there should have been adequate supervision to assist in the case of an emergency."
A robust safe system of work would have prevented the tyre shredder and components being operated while the effected guarding was being modified.
"Businesses need to quit removing the very guarding that is in place to keep people safe. Waste Management NZ Limited should not have allowed this machine to be used without guarding or safe processes in place. Its failure to implement these simple safety measures has left a worker with severe injuries," Henry said.
Waste Management was fined $400,000 and ordered to pay $50,000 in reparation to the victim.