Napier company fined after worker's leg amputated

A Napier contractor has been ordered to pay $60,000 after a logging accident resulted in one of its employees having to have part of his leg amputated. File photo / Rotorua Daily Post

A Napier contractor has been ordered to pay $60,000 after a logging accident resulted in one of its employees having to have part of his leg amputated.

A1 Contractors Limited was prosecuted by the Department of Labour after a log fell on an employee's leg at a work site on a property in Patoka, 45km northwest of Napier, in March last year.

The worker suffered serious injuries, requiring his lower right leg to be amputated.

The department's investigation into the incident found the company did not have an adequate health and safety system in place at the time of the accident, the department's Napier service manager, Murray Thomson said.

"Our investigation found that it was almost inevitable that the employee would be struck by a loose branch moved by the log," Mr Thomson said.

If the company had an adequate system in place the employee may not have suffered such a "devastating" injury, he said.

A1 Contractors Limited was ordered in the Napier District Court to pay a $30,000 fine and $30,000 in reparations to the injured employee for failing to ensure the safety of its employees

- NZPA