The failure by public transport operator Go Wellington to act quickly to prevent harm in a place of work, has resulted in the company being ordered to pay a fine of $22,000, and reparation totalling $3500 amongst seven identfiable victims for the emotional harm caused
Police say the prosecution highlights the duty of care that all public transport providers have to ensure passenger safety and carry out timely and effective maintenance.
Go Wellington is owned by New Zealand Bus Ltd and was sentenced in the Wellington District Court on a charge of failing to take all practical steps to prevent harm in a place of work, following a string of incidents between May and August 2013.
“The charge relates to eight incidents, where passengers, including young children and pregnant women, became trapped in bus doors when entering or exiting buses, with the potential to cause serious injury or death, says Road policing national manager Superintendent Carey Griffiths.
Griffiths says despite Police and NZTA working with the company for a number of years to improve safety, it had failed to act quickly or decisively enough.
“Since 2010, the agencies have worked with New Zealand Bus to gain improvement in their Wellington fleet, after ongoing checks revealed failures in practices around maintenance, reporting, training and systems to measure compliance.
“It is clear that NZ Bus should have taken action sooner to improve safety, including enhancing rear door visibility for drivers, fitting sensor systems to doors so they could not trap passengers, carrying out more frequent door mechanism safety checks and ensuring that better maintenance records were kept.
“While the company has made some improvement, it is extremely disappointing that matters had to be progressed through the courts to achieve compliance.
“This serves to remind all public transport services that the first priority is to ensure the safety of the travelling public at all times, and that enforcement agencies will put these matters before the courts when there are serious failings.” he says.
