A Southland farmer must pay more than $150,000 in fines and reparation after health and safety failings resulted in the death of a 51-year-old employee last year.
Frederick McCullough was ordered to pay reparation of $100,000 and fined $52,000 after Tuatapere man Nicholas David McKenzie was crushed between an excavator and tree stumps on August 12 last year.
Mr McKenzie was helping to clear scrub on the Orepuki farm run by McCullough at the time of the incident.
McCullough, who was driving the excavator, was sentenced yesterday in the Invercargill District Court for failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of an employee at work under the Health and Safety in Employment Act.
WorkSafe New Zealand chief investigator Keith Stewart said clearing scrub with an excavator posed a risk to nearby workers.
''McCullough should have identified a safe area on site and ensured the employee was in it before driving or slewing [turning] the excavator,'' he said.
''Safe areas are a simple but important way to protect workers.
''The excavator could also have had rear-vision mirrors and a travel alarm that warns people when the machine starts to move.
''This case is a sad reminder of the risks faced by people who work around heavy vehicles and in uncontrolled settings.
"Those risks have to be managed and minimised.''
The judge originally set the fine at $77,000 with reparation of $75,000, but $25,000 of the fine was apportioned to Mr McKenzie's widow at the request of the defence counsel.