Death of worker killed by glass costs firm $90,000

Four work-mates were injured helping Jinsong Song. Photo / Steven McNicholl

A North Shore company has been fined tens of thousands of dollars after a staff member was killed by a falling sheet of glass.

Jinsong Song, 42, and seven other employees of Sharpeye were unloading 11 sheets of glass from a timber cradle inside a container on April 6.

As they were removing one of the sheets, the rest became unstable and a 200kg sheet fell on to Mr Song, severely cutting his face and neck.

Four workmates were hurt as they tried to rescue him. Two suffered serious cuts.

Sharpeye, which is in the Wairau Valley industrial zone, was yesterday fined $30,000 and ordered to pay reparation of $60,000.

It pleaded guilty in the North Shore District Court to one charge under Section 6 of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 which says every employer should take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of employees while at work.

Department of Labour North Shore services manager Zaneta Schumann said it was a "horrific accident" that was "entirely avoidable" if proper steps had been in place to manage the heavy load of glass.

"Unloading individual sheets of glass out of timber cradles inside containers in this way is not a safe way of working. Sharpeye should have made sure that the sheets were packed in a way so a machine like a forklift could be used to unload the glass."

If that wasn't possible, a proper hazard analysis would have identified the risk of the glass sheets falling and steps could have been taken to prevent it happening.

"Our investigation also revealed that employees needed to be trained in handling sheets of glass," Ms Schumann said.

Mr Song was a director of Sharpeye with manager Dongguang Chen, who told the Herald yesterday that the sentence was fair.

He said the company had made changes after Mr Song's death, which is why it escaped with a $30,000 fine and not a much higher one. The starting point in these sorts of cases can be as high as $250,000.

Mr Chen said the plan to move the glass had been good but something went wrong.

"We did have a mistake. That's why we pleaded guilty ...

"The company [learned] a lesson and the company will pay for it and basically we take responsibility and didn't run away and kept the same name."

Glass was dangerous to work with, Mr Chen said, but Sharpeye had had a good safety record until the April incident.

He now wanted to move on and put the accident behind him.