Sorenson Transport Limited has been sentenced in the Tauranga District Court after one of its truck’s brakes failed causing injuries.
It was fined $150,000 and ordered to pay reparations of $85,000 to two victims, as well as consequential loss of $22,113.
In October 2016 a driver who worked for the company, was travelling down the Kaimai Ranges, when the truck’s brakes stopped working correctly.
The driver lost control of the truck, which then struck another vehicle, crashed through a barrier and fell on its side trapping the driver in the cab. The driver suffered bruising to the legs, arm and shoulder and suffered whiplash.
The driver of the vehicle struck by the truck lost a right eye and suffered from multiple rib fractures as well as a fractured face and collar bone and bruised lungs.
A police investigation raised concerns about breaches of work health and safety legislation with regards to the state of maintenance to the truck and as a result WorkSafe carried out its own investigation.
A WorkSafe investigation found the truck was not maintained to proper standards and found that brakes were not included on the Sorenson’s fleet check sheet.
WorkSafe investigation chief inspector Steve Kelly says vehicles are the single biggest cause of acute harm at work across all sectors.
“The consequences of an incident involving a vehicle can be severe. This incident has left one person with life changing injuries and the outcome could have been much worse.
“This crash could have been avoided if Sorenson Transport Limited had of ensured the truck was adequately maintained and if the company had established an effective system for identifying and monitoring maintenance requirements specific to each truck in its fleet.”
The company was charged under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 with failing to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers, and that failure exposed them to a risk of death or serious injury arising from failure of truck brake systems.
