Employer sentenced after workplace death

New Zealand’s safety regulator has urged employers to take stock of any heavy machines – and the risks associated with them – following one worker’s untimely death.

Easton Agriculture Limited was sentenced in Palmerstone North District Court last week after one of its employees died when he became trapped in a potato harvester.

The man had worked with Easton Agriculture for more than 30 years and was familiar with the machinery he was operating – however, a subsequent WorkSafe investigation found the machine lacked guarding which could have saved his life.

The company also had no lone worker policy in place and did not have a standard operating procedure for the safe operation of the machine.

"This fatality is a sombre reminder that some of the machines we work with have the potential to kill us," said Simon Humphries, WorkSafe’s deputy general manager of investigations.

"When it comes to big pieces of machinery, there are no second chances,” he added. “Limbs and lives are lost.”

For reasons that cannot be published, no fine could be imposed – however, the court said, had a fine been available, it would have been $330,000. The maximum penalty is a fine not exceeding $1,500,000.

Reparation of $85,000 to the victim's family was ordered and payable, as well as $3,500 in costs.

“Take stock of your machines and the risks associated with them and spend the time to mitigate those risks — so that if you or your workers make a mistake — you just might have saved a life,” said Humphries.

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