The man's arm was caught in a conveyor belt, severing it completely. Photo / File
A man whose arm was severed by a conveyer belt had to pull what was left of his limb free and run back through the warehouse where he worked, looking for help.
He barely survived the horrific injury and after surgery was left with only four inches of his right arm remaining.
Today, one of the country’s largest dry cement manufacturers, Dunlop Drymix, was ordered to pay their former worker $60,000 in emotional harm reparation and to pay a fine of $297,000.
“…he describes pain, and how the pain stopped when his arm was torn from his shoulder,” Judge Jonathan Krebs said in sentencing the company in the Palmerston North District Court this afternoon.
“At that point, and in a remarkable display of stoicism, he was able to run from the room and make the accident known to other staff members.”
Judge Krebs said other workers were able to stem the bleeding before emergency services arrived but the injury could have easily been fatal.
Dunlop Drymix acquired the company in July 2021 and identified on the very first day that the conveyor machine didn’t have a guard and was a potential safety risk.
But it didn’t do anything about it other than put some cones in front of it and a temporary barrier and some four months later the worker, who stayed on with the company after it was bought out, lost his arm in the accident.
According to the summary of facts the man, who had worked at the company for five years, was the only one in the room early one morning in November 2021 when he decided to clean the conveyor belt.
He moved cones and a makeshift barrier aside to get closer to the machine and took an air compressor with him to spray the accumulated dust away.
However, he dropped the compressor and as he reached for it his fingers were caught between the belt and one of the rollers and it began to pull him inside.
He was able to pull his arm free only after it had been severed at the shoulder.
The machine wasn’t operating when the man started cleaning it and despite an investigation by WorkSafe it’s unclear how it came to be turned on.
Judge Krebs said the company identified the risks on the first day they took over and did very little to mitigate the risks.
“More should have been done than simply the erecting of some cones, some tape, and some signs,” he said.
Dunlop Drymix paid the man’s wages until the start of 2022 when ACC took over, paying him 80 per cent of his normal wage with the company topping up the rest which it will continue to do until the end of the year.
It also paid him $10,000 in advance of any eventual emotional harm reparation which was today deducted from the total bill the company had to pay out.
“It is never possible to put a money figure on the emotional harm suffered in accidents such as these,” Judge Krebs said in ordering the company pay its former worker $60,000.
“In times gone by we had a scale but we’ve moved on from such a blunt system.”
The company’s lawyer, Brett Harris, told the court that installing a permanent barrier on the machine would have meant it would be impossible to clean.
He said the company had quickly recognised that certain things were not ideal after taking over but was still working on making changes at the time of the accident.
“The machine was expected to only be cleaned at the end of the shift when it was off,” Harris said.
“There were barriers in place in the morning but they were moved. It was a legacy failure here that was missed.”
WorkSafe prosecutor Karina Sagaga told the court this was yet another case of a company failing to provide adequate guarding on one of its machines.
“The defendant didn’t provide any training nor instruction to workers in regards to this conveyor and how to clean it,” she said.
Sagaga told the court the man sustained life-changing injuries that were entirely preventable and that WorkSafe provided plenty of guidance to companies on how to prevent workplace injuries.
“You can’t train workers on something that doesn’t exist,” Sagaga said.
“In this case the defendant’s whole arm was severed. He had to pull free which resulted in his arm being cut off. He had to run through the warehouse looking for help.”
The worker didn’t appear in court this afternoon where he was granted name suppression. He also asked Judge Krebs for his victim impact statement not to be read in open court.
“This life-changing injury could have been avoided if the machinery was properly safeguarded to industry standards,” WorkSafe’s area investigation manager, Paul Budd, said after the sentence was handed down.
“Although a business might have standard operating procedures for machinery while it’s in use, it’s critical to think about how that extends to cleaning and maintenance too.
“Those uses can’t be dismissed as out of sight and out of mind because they are happening out of hours.”
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.
