No charges will be laid against the owner of an excavation company who was crushed to death at a Canterbury limestone quarry last year, despite breaches of health and safety law.
WorkSafe New Zealand confirmed today it would not go ahead with court action after Murray Taylor was killed when a limestone quarry face he was working on collapsed, burying his excavator under tonnes of rocks.
Chief inspector of investigations Keith Stewart said there were breaches of the Health and Safety in Employment Act, but prosecution was not in the public interest and nothing would be gained from laying charges.
Mr Taylor was the sole director of Heathstock Haulage Ltd, the company in charge of the quarry work.
He died in June, when about 1000 tonnes of sandstone rock fell from the Waikari quarry wall, burying the 65-tonne "Cat" excavator he was operating at the time.
A WorkSafe investigation found Mr Taylor's excavation work had undermined the rock face and made it unstable.
Mr Stewart said Mr Taylor was operating the excavator directly below the face of the wall when it collapsed, instantly crushing the cab.
Mr Taylor did not hold a Certificate of Competence, legally required for the sort of quarry work he was doing.
"Quarry work is inherently risky unless it is done correctly. In this case no geotechnical assessment had been carried out to determine the nature of the rock wall. That would have helped identify the safest way to tackle excavation work. There was also no evidence procedures were in place to ensure that staff were adequately trained, monitored and supervised," Mr Stewart said.
Although any workplace death was a tragedy for family, friends and colleagues it was hoped the publicity surrounding Mr Taylor's death would prompt quarry operators to check that their certificates were current and practices were safe.
