A freight company has been fined $250,000 after a worker sustained serious injuries in a forklift accident.
PBT Transport Limited was sentenced in the Auckland District Court last Friday and was also ordered to pay reparations of $20,000.
In September 2016 a worker received back injuries after the freight cage he was working in fell three metres from forklift tines.
WorkSafe’s head of specialist interventions Simon Humphries says it followed two similar incidents at other PBT Transport sites in 2009 and the company failed to significantly improve their processes as a result.
WorkSafe’s investigation into the September 2016 incident found that the freight cage did not comply with industry standards and had not been attached to the forklift correctly.
It also found that while PBT Transport had safety systems documented, they were not being implemented in the day to day running of the business and workers were not being appropriately communicated with.
“It was reasonably practicable for PBT Transport Ltd to ensure the freight cage they used complied with industry standards and that only trained, competent and authorised workers should be using the freight cage and forklift.
“If you have a system in place – use it and when things go wrong – learn from your mistakes before another life is put at risk,” Humphries says.
