A Wellington engineer suspended amid inquiries over towbars says he's been unfairly targeted by the Transport Agency before.
Photo: ivantsov/123RF
Dick Joyce, has been suspended following audit concerns, just weeks after he was used by the Transport Agency to inspect truck-trailers caught up in a safety investigation.
He is the second engineer to be suspended and the agency said a third certifier was being investigated after a recent complaint.
Mr Joyce was suspended last week, shortly after making two trips to Greymouth to help the agency clear a backlog of more than 1400 truck-trailers with safety concerns.
The agency has been calling in certifiers since May to help get truckers back on the road at the top of the South Island, after finding trailer failures linked to Nelson engineer Peter Wastney.
"Yes, I have been down there, helping the situation," Mr Joyce said.
"It's an extremely good question," he said, why the agency would use him to recertify trailers one week, and suspend him the next.
He said he would be taking action, possibly legal action, against the agency but had not decided exactly what.
Mr Joyce is able to challenge his suspension at the district court, and if the agency decides to revoke his certifying licence entirely after what it says will be a few more days investigating, he can challenge that too.
"I certainly don't think I've taken any shortcuts," he said of his certifying work.
"Nothing I have done could be regarded as being dangerous, none of my work has actually failed."
However, a truck-trailer designed by one of his engineers snapped off a truck some years ago outside Taihape.
Both the designer and Mr Joyce were temporarily suspended. "If it was the [designer's] work, how come I was held accountable?" Mr Joyce said last night. "Again, it's a very good question."
He added the agency told him its investigation was inconclusive, and he thought it was not a design flaw at all, but a mistake by the driver missing a gear change with a full load on a steep hill and rolling back into a ditch.
"So you can understand that I'm a bit bitter perhaps," he said.
A third certifier in Auckland is being investigated after a recent complaint.
The issues were unrelated to either the Wastney or Dick Joyce matters, the agency said today.
"In addition to these investigations the Transport Agency is also auditing other certifiers, as part of our auditing regime, and we will continue to take enforcement action wherever it is warranted in order to ensure public safety," said a spokesperson for the agency.
The agency admitted it had problems with its certification audits and had plans to add capacity.
It is fronting the bill for the Wastney recertifications, which RNZ understands could run to $4 million, or even twice that.
The agency may seek to be reimbursed for these costs by Mr Wastney's insurers.
The Transport Agency are yet to say why Mr Joyce was recertifying trailers one week, and suspended the next.
The Road Transport Forum said the Wastney case was an "absolute wake-up call" for a public agency that had "dropped the ball".