Fix and fasten against Wellington’s wind

Wednesday 7 July 2004

Wellington's public servants may have acclimatised themselves to the city's blustery conditions, but the Department of Labour says some construction companies appear to have forgotten about windy Wellington's reputation.

The department's occupational safety and health service is regularly called out to incidents on construction sites around Wellington, where inadequately fixed or stored materials put bystanders at risk.

One Wellington scaffolding contractor, Instant Access NZ Ltd, was today fined $15,000 after an insecurely fixed mobile scaffold fell 63 metres from the top of ANZ Tower Building onto Featherston St last November, crashing onto a parked car. The company was also ordered to pay reparation to the owners of the damaged car.

OSH prosecuted Instant Access under the Health and Safety in Employment Act. The company pleaded guilty to a charge of not properly securing the scaffold.

OSH service manager for Wellington/Kapiti Rob Scriven said it was lucky there was no one in the car, nor anyone working on the scaffold, at the time of the accident.

“As well as the obvious safety issues, no company wants their name associated with an accident like this. In terms of your company's reputation, good safety is good business sense.”

Mr Scriven said the accident happened because the scaffold was not adequately attached to the building. “It was a pretty windy day, and a painter using the scaffold had to down tools because it wasn't safe to carry on working. Shortly after, a gust of wind lifted the scaffold from the top floor and sent it flying to the street. It landed on top of a parked car, and a piece of aluminium flew across the street into a shop canopy. All this at lunchtime on a workday in a busy street – how no one was injured was a stroke of pure luck.”

He said construction companies needed to remember that umbrellas aren't the only things likely to become airborne when the winds pick up. “You don't have to be a genius to realise that things get blown around in the wind, especially during the gales we get here in Wellington. Yet time and again we're called to construction sites where materials aren't stored or secured properly, and end up flying around the place.”

“Wind is a fact of life in Wellington, and it's a constant factor for construction companies to bear in mind.” OSH is satisfied that Instant Access NZ has learnt a tough lesson. “This is a chance for scaffolders in Wellington to learn from someone else's mistake,” says Mr Scriven, “to protect their reputation as well as the safety of the public.”

Follow links to see images of the ANZ Tower (64k) and the car that was hit (48k)