WorkSafe New Zealand | Two more businesses have been held to account for the forestry road failures that killed Coromandel truck driver Greg Stevens.
59-year-old Mr. Stevens died when his fully loaded logging truck and trailer rolled while negotiating a treacherous bend on a private forestry road in May 2023.
The road had no warning signs, road markers or berms, and its sharp corner was well outside any recommended specifications for the heavy vehicle he was driving.
The Thames District Court found the corner’s turning diameter was 7.5 metres less than the minimum standard for the truck configuration. Wet surfaces, mud-caked tyres, darkness, and a steep downhill approach made the bend even more dangerous.
The forest owner, Specialty Timbers (1987) Limited, and the transport contractor, Trevor Masters Limited, have now been sentenced for their work health and safety failures. Judge Tompkins found each party assumed someone else was ensuring the road was safe, so nobody took responsibility.
Specialty Timbers (1987) Limited and Trevor Masters Limited were sentenced in a reserved decision of the Thames District Court. Reparations of $171,258 were ordered, alongside a combined fine of $26,250.
Both companies were charged under sections 34(1) and 34(2)(b) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015: Being a PCBU with a duty in relation to workers, including Gregory Albert Stevens, failed to, so far as is reasonably practicable, consult, co-operate with, and co-ordinate activities, with Forest360 Limited who had a duty in relation to the same matter.
The forest managers, Forest360 Limited, have separately entered an enforceable undertaking. This is a binding agreement with WorkSafe to invest over $400,000 in a range of safety actions in response to the death.
