Family considers legal advice

The family of Aryan Banerjee are considering legal advice after a report absolved Taradale Primary of responsibility for his death.

The father of a Taradale Primary School student who died is considering legal advice independent of WorkSafe New Zealand's report after they cleared the school of all responsibility.

Aryan Banerjee was hanged when his clothing became caught on a window latch while trying to escape a school toilet he was stuck in.

The nine-year-old lost the battle for his life in hospital after more than three months in an induced coma.

The bubbly and kind boy became trapped when he could not open the door without a door handle because of ongoing maintenance.

His father, Anjan Banerjee, said if the caretaker had put an out-of-order sign on the toilet then his son would not have used it. But he believed small health and safety measures, such as signs, did not come under health and safety regulations.

"They have regulations in place for big things, but no signs for wet floors or maintenance."

WorkSafe's report concluded the circumstances of the incident were "not reasonably foreseeable, and no charges were legally justified".

The Banerjees said they did not accept their son's death was an unfortunate accident. They felt there were many ways this could have been avoided and more questions needed asking. He questioned their method of recognising hazards. "Why do you have to look as far as the extremity of someone dying before recognising a hazard."

WorkSafe's chief inspector, Keith Stewart, said although it was possible to foresee that someone might have found themselves stuck in the toilet, "it was not reasonable to think the school or the worker involved should have planned to avoid the possibility of someone being so seriously injured climbing out a ground floor window and being caught on the latch".

The Hastings doctor disagreed. "How many children like being locked in a room? You can't anticipate what a child would think, some would just stand and cry and bang on the door and some would try to find anther way out, and that's what Aryan did. He was only nine, children don't think like adults."

New health and safety legislation is set to take effect next April but Mr Banerjee shrugged his shoulders and said, "how does this help me?"

For the Banerjees it was too little, too late.

As part of their investigations, WorkSafe conducted global research to determine whether any other person had suffered an accident similar to Aryan's. There were no other cases. Aryan's was the first in the world, WorkSafe told the family.

Aryan's family were still struggling to come to terms with his death. His 11-year-old brother, Anshul, missed his brother immensely but had a close group of friends at the school.

Taradale Primary School declined to respond to Mr Banerjee's comments, and referred Hawke's Bay Today to their statement issued after WorkSafe's decision was released.

Board of trustees chairman Steve Alexander said at the time that the school and community continued to grieve for the Banerjee family.

Ministry of Education head of sector enablement and support Katrina Casey said the ministry had been in constant contact with the school, wider family and friends since Aryan was fatally injured.

The family took Aryan back to his ancestral homeland and sprinkled his ashes in the Ganges River. But the father said they will not be able to move on or find closure until investigations were completed.

WorkSafe also chose not to comment.