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Jun Jiang was allegedly not wearing any protective gear when he fell at metal manufacturer SD Aluminium in Auckland on December 28, Radio New Zealand reported.
WorkSafe launched an investigation into the incident and has been on-site at SD Aluminium this week, area investigation manager Danielle Henry said.
Jiang’s widow Jia Fan told RNZ receiving a phone call about her husband’s fall made her feel “as though the sky had collapsed on me”.
Fan told the Herald this morning Jiang died yesterday evening when his life support was turned off.
Jia Fan (left) and Jun Jiang (right) celebrate Christmas in December 2024. Photo / Supplied via RNZ
Fan, who spoke only Chinese, said she and her daughter were very upset.
She said she tried to explain her husband’s death to her 8-year-old daughter with sensitive and child-friendly language, but her daughter was still distraught.
Fan said she planned to have funeral rites done in China, but the family wanted to organise to have Jiang cremated here and flown back first.
WorkSafe’s Henry said falls from heights were a well-known risk in manufacturing. It was a priority in WorkSafe’s new strategy, she said.
“The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 requires businesses and organisations to manage their health and safety risks,” Henry said.
“When it comes to working at height, this means using machinery appropriate for the task, training workers, and carrying out proper risk assessment – all of which are under scrutiny in this case."
Widow describes phone call about husband’s fall
On December 28, Fan received a telephone call from one of Jiang’s co-workers, who told her that her husband had fallen from a scissor lift while moving aluminium extrusions at the company’s Albany warehouse.
“I was so nervous that I was shaking. I couldn’t even talk,” Fan said. “I asked if he was okay, and I was told that it was serious as he hit the ground with his head. I felt as though the sky had collapsed on me.”
Jia Fan and her daughter at Auckland City Hospital. Photo / Liu Chen, RNZ
Fan contacted a friend who spoke English to call emergency services, she said.
A St John spokesperson confirmed the medical service had assessed a patient at the scene, transporting the individual to Auckland City Hospital in a critical condition.
Doctors operated on Jiang’s brain that evening before placing him on life support, Fan said.
- RNZ reporter Liu Chen with additional reporting from NZ Herald’s Raphael Franks, an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.
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