Company to pay $3000 after worker’s hand crushed

Thursday 17 June 2004

A Hastings timber supplier has been fined $1500 and ordered to pay $1500 reparation after a worker's hand was crushed in an accident last year.

The Waipawa Timber Supplies Ltd employee was seriously injured when his hand was drawn into an unguarded chain on the company's Omahu Rd, Hastings, site, in February 2003. Occupational Safety and Health investigated the accident and found that the inadequately guarded chain and sprocket on one of the conveyors meant employees had access to hazardous parts of the conveyor.

OSH Hawkes Bay/East Coast service manager Murray Thomson said the company had failed to take all practicable steps to ensure that the employee was not harmed while at work. It was the third time OSH had prosecuted Waipawa Timber Supplies for workplace accidents, and Mr Thomson said the company had failed to learn from the previous incidents.

OSH first prosecuted the company in 1994, after a worker's arm was amputated below the elbow in band re-saw accident. The second accident was in 2000, where an employee lost the top of two fingers while using a snip saw.

Everyone had the right to be safe at work, Mr Thomson said. “Companies must ensure that workplace hazards are identified and controlled correctly, and that safety systems are constantly reviewed and updated.”

Waipawa Timber Supplies Ltd was sentenced in the Hastings District Court yesterday.