WorkSafe New Zealand | Businesses and workers must steer clear of power lines and plan work carefully, WorkSafe New Zealand says, following sentencing for a timber delivery that went tragically wrong.
Wesley Talakai was delivering timber to a residential site in Greenhithe when the truck-mounted crane he was operating struck live lines in August 2023. The 38-year-old died at the scene.
Mr Talakai raised concerns with his employer, NZ Solid, about limited space at the site and proximity to overhead power lines, however the company gave him a gate code to access the site and continue the work. The crane was operating just 2.5 metres from live lines – well inside the legal minimum of four metres. NZ Solid did not obtain consent from the line owner to work within that distance. The company has now been sentenced for its health and safety failures.
In a victim impact statement, Natasha Talakai told the court that the time since her husband’s death had been “excruciatingly difficult, exhausting, painful, and lonely”.
“This was a preventable death,” says WorkSafe’s regional manager, Brad Duggan.
“Working near power lines is a well-known hazard, and there are clear rules and guidance in place for a reason.”
WorkSafe’s investigation found serious failures in how the company planned and executed the job. It relied on verbal instructions, had an inadequate lift plan, and failed to properly assess the risks posed by overhead power lines.
“Risk management isn’t a box-ticking exercise,” adds Brad Duggan. “It’s about making sure workers go home safe. That means planning the job, knowing the limits of your equipment, maintaining safe distances, and never assuming it’ll be fine.”
NZ Solid Limited was fined $330,000, having been charged under sections 36(1)(a), 48(1) and (2)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
Being a PCBU, having a duty to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers who work for the PCBU, including Wesley Talakai, while the workers were at work in the business or undertaking, namely undertaking a delivery of timber packets, did fail to comply with that duty and that failure exposed workers to a risk of serious injury or death.
