• Driver crushed in bin-lifting machinery died
• Company pleaded guilty to health and safety charges
• Ordered to pay family reparations or $85,000
• Fined $66,000
A recycling company has been ordered to pay a fine and reparations totalling more than $150,000 over the death of a 20-year-old worker who was crushed by semi-automatic machinery on a truck.
Junior Hunt suffered severe crush injuries in the accident in Wellington involving a recycling truck's bin-lifter on March 3 last year; he died the following evening.
Despite the efforts of a member of the public at the scene of the accident in Upton Tce, Thorndon to release the bin-lifter, Mr Hunt remained trapped between it and the centre pod of the truck until emergency services arrived. The bin-lifter moves a bin of sorted glass to an opening on the top of the truck.
He was an employee of Enterprise Recruitment under its contract with household refuse and recycling company Envirowaste Services Ltd.