$30,000 meat company fine goes to victim's kids

The children of a woman crushed to death while cleaning a revolving door at a meat works will receive all of a $30,000 fine the company was ordered to pay today.

Petunia Waaka, 29, was cleaning a door at Crusader Meats in the King Country town of Benneydale on January 11 when she was crushed between the doorway and one of the revolving door's partitions.

She was stuck in the doorway for 30 minutes. Emergency services revived her at the scene and flew her to Waikato Hospital, but she died after life support was switched off.

Occupational Safety and Health prosecuted the company for failing to provide a safe working environment.

Today in Te Kuiti District Court, Judge Robert Wolff fined the company $30,000, all of which is to go into a trust fund for Ms Waaka's three young children, who were aged seven, six and five at the time of her death.

The company was also ordered to pay for setting up the trust fund and any associated costs.

OSH spokesman Ian Baxter was pleased with the outcome. He said it was not the highest fine handed down to a company for such an accident, but it was an appropriate amount.

The company could have been fined up to either $50,000 or $100,000 depending on the exact charge OSH laid.

Mr Baxter said Crusader Meats had agreed to pay the fine and associated costs.

He had not spoken to the family today, but a representative of OSH had been in court.

The door which had trapped Ms Waaka has since been removed. It was between the area where sheep were slaughtered and skinned, and the meat processing section.

That area of the building had been redesigned, Mr Baxter said.

He was not aware of any revolving doors that were being used in similar buildings.

The door had been installed at Crusader Meats just five days before the accident as part of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) requirements.

Mr Baxter said it might never be known exactly how Ms Waaka had ended up wedged in the door and he did not know any further details about her death.

Family members said earlier they thought Ms Waaka had suffered serious internal injuries.

They had spoken out about how Ms Waaka had considered the door was dangerous before she died.

Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said the fine was "woefully inadequate."

"Even the judge at this morning's hearing commented that the amount does not reflect the price of a life," Mr Wilson said in a statement.

New health and safety legislation was urgently required and fines needed to be increased, he said.

"We have heard a lot of politicians and employers' representatives criticising so-called exorbitant fines for employers. The reality is in this tragic story of a young mother of three who had the right to go to work and return home safely."

- NZPA