Manhole deaths baffle officials

By Naomi Larkin and Simon Hendery

Authorities will today try to unravel the reasons behind the country's worst industrial accident in 20 years, which claimed three lives in a downtown Auckland sewer.

The workmen from the Auckland companies Aquatech and Stargate died around noon on Saturday after they were overcome by deadly gases while flushing out sewage lines on the corner of Halsey St and Fanshawe St.

As shocked family and friends struggle to deal with the deaths of Eddie James Rihia, aged 30, of Albany, Kenneth Campbell Karu, 47, of Avondale and Darren Lewis Skeen, 19, from Greenhithe, a team of inspectors from the Labour Department is investigating why the men were in the sewer at all.

Aquatech spokesman Simon Ericson said yesterday that it was too early to speculate about how or why the men had died. The firm would hold its own investigation.

"The company is at a loss to understand how these tragic circumstances occurred because the work carried out was never to involve men being below ground level.

"There are very strict guidelines and procedures as to how we operate in such situations and that's why we're so baffled and confused as to why this has happened."

Mr Ericson said there was a close bond between workers from both companies, which ran like a family. Any of the men would have braved danger for the others and it was likely this bond went a long way to explaining the trio's actions.

"We're still piecing it together. But we do believe that, possibly because of that brotherhood bond, if one got into trouble he would have called the other for help.

"It's just such a waste. Three young lives, very dedicated, hard-working guys with great senses of humour and who knew how to live."

During the incident one of the three men phoned another contracting company, Grout Seal, for help after seeing his two workmates lying unconscious in the sewer.

Contractor Selwyn Saunders took the call and he and worker Aaron Nesbett raced to the scene. They found all three men collapsed.

Mr Nesbett, who tried to rescue them, was later treated for shock and gas inhalation.

Lisa-Marie Richan of the Labour Department's Occupational Safety and Health service said inquiries would involve scientific experts.

"We will be looking right through the contractual relationship, health and safety systems and the equipment used. All that will have to be established, as well as the system that was in place and the safety equipment used."

On Saturday, a Fire Service hazardous substance adviser, Tony Haggerty, said it appeared that the men had not been carrying mandatory oxygen detectors and would have been unaware of the lethal cocktail of gases and low oxygen levels.

Sharon Buckland, spokeswoman for Metrowater, the Auckland City Council-owned water company that contracted out the maintenance work, said safety rules were in place for contractors.

"At this stage we don't know why the men went down the sewer because that wasn't part of their original brief."
The type of work being done by the men - flushing fat off the walls of a sewer - could normally be done from street level.

The last time three workers died together on a work site was in the mid-1970s when a building platform collapsed at Wellington Hospital.