The worker was crushed by the shipping container at the site in Totara St on March 14, 2016. Video / NZME
One of the men first on the scene of a workplace accident in which a man was fatally crushed has told an inquest that he relives the tragedy every day - five years on.
Through tears, Clint Burgess said he wished he could have done more to prevent it.
Burgess gave evidence on the second day of a coroner's inquest into the death of the worker, whose name is suppressed, in the Tauranga District Court today.
The worker was crushed between the rear of a swing loader trailer and a shipping container at the site in Totara St on March 14, 2016. The Mount Maunganui site was owned by the port but leased to the man's employer, Coda Operations Limited Partnership (Coda).
Burgess was branch manager for Priority Logistics which was owned by Coda at the time.
He told the court he had been further down Totara St getting some lunch when emergency services called him to tell him about the incident.
"When I first arrived, I was really alarmed at where [the worker] had been standing," he said.
"I couldn't think of a legitimate reason for him to be standing in the position he had been. There was no need for him to be standing that close. In addition to that, I read (in a report) that he had one [truck] leg on the container instead of both on the ground. I've never heard of an employee doing something like this."
Burgess said he was "deeply affected" by the incident and kept in contact with the worker's whanau, calling them every anniversary of the death.
Burgess no longer works for Coda, having left about three months ago, but said the company accepted responsibility for what happened. He said Coda went "above and beyond" to do right by the whanau, including offering financial assistance.
The scene where a man was crushed between a shipping container and a truck. Photo / NZME
After Genevieve Haszard, counsel for the dead man's whanau, questioned Burgess as to how much time he spent with the worker during his safety induction, Coroner Matthew Bates asked him whether there may have been something he could have done differently.
Burgess fought back tears when he replied: "I reflect on [the worker's] accident - sorry if I get upset - I reflect on it, I live it, I think you can always have done more. Now I live every day like something like that is going to happen in a workplace. I try to share that with people around me.
"You look at it, I have asked a lot of questions. You just have to try and reflect on it and get better. Teach everyone around you to get better."
Coroner Bates said: "Hindsight is always 20/20. You are saying you could have done more but at the time you did all you could have."
Burgess: "Until something like this happens, you think life's good and you are doing the right thing."
The court heard Burgess has since created a document for operating side loaders, also known as swing loaders, such as the one involved in the worker's death and this was expected to be released as national guidelines in a few months.
"We have written a code of practice for side loaders and this is now with Worksafe," Burgess said.
