Company fined after worker catapulted from digger

A Tauranga construction company has been fined after a worker was flung from a digger. Photo / Sarah Ivey

A Tauranga construction company has been fined $40,000 and ordered to make reparations of $15,000 after a worker was flung almost 3m into the air, breaking both wrists and two ribs.

Conslab Limited pleaded guilty to one charge under the Health and Safety Act and was sentenced in Auckland District Court yesterday.

The court was told the company had been contracted to build a masonry block retaining wall.

A Conslab employee and an employee of another company were unloading two-tonne masonry blocks from the back of a truck using a small digger as a forklift.

The driver, a Conslab employee, asked the other worker to get on the back of the digger to counter the weight of the block, but when the driver lowered the block quickly to the ground the other worker was flung about 2.5m in the air.

He landed on the digger roof, then fell to the ground, breaking both wrists and two ribs.

The digger was not supposed to lift more than 815kg but was being used to try and move blocks of up to two tonnes, Labour Department acting northern regional manger Claire Morris said.

"This is completely unacceptable and it should never have been used for this job," she said.

"This employee was extremely lucky to survive this accident but his injuries could have been avoided if Conslab had made sure their employees knew the operating capacity of the bobcat (digger)," she said.

The company should have trained the driver to use the machine as a forklift but ultimately should have provided a more suitable machine to unload the blocks.

- NZPA