An Otago trucking company has been found guilty of two charges relating to the death of a worker in Bluff more than five years ago.
Yesterday morning in the Invercargill District Court, Judge Duncan Harvey found two charges under the Safety at Work Act proven against McLellan Freight Ltd.
Based on the evidence heard at a judge-alone trial in June, he found the company guilty of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the health and safety of a worker, and failing to co-ordinate activity with persons conducting a business or undertaking.
The names of the vehicle operator and victim are suppressed.
The Otago-based company used contracted truck drivers to transport palm kernel, an animal feed, from South Port to a shed in Bluff, where the fatal accident took place.
The premises were shared by many trucking businesses.
The court heard that in the early hours of the morning, the victim had parked his truck in an unsafe position.
He got out of the vehicle to blow residual palm kernel off the back of his truck.
This job was often done by workers known as "spotters", but when they were not available it became the job of the truck driver.
While the man was out of his truck, a front-loader in the shed reversed into him, resulting in his death.
A witness said at trial that if he had been a spotter that night, he would have told the victim to move his truck.
The company had a document called "Bluff Operating Procedures" that included safety guidelines for workers.
But Judge Harvey found that these guidelines had not been adequately shared between other contracted companies using the site.
"I found that the failure to circulate the Bluff Operating Procedures was a serious oversight," he said.
"There were a number of reasonable practical steps that could have been taken to protect workers."
If there had been a designated spotter at all times, the risk of accidents occurring would have been reduced, he said.
He said another safety precaution that the company could have taken was loaders being equipped with reversing cameras.
A line of cones to mark where the trucks should park before unloading palm kernel was also a step the company could have taken to ensure the safety of workers in the shed, the judge said.
The company is due to be sentenced in November.
