Latest news with #workplaceSafety
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
PAWS Construction and Maintenance fined over death of tradie Nathaniel Good
A construction company has been fined over the death of a 19-year old tradie who was struck by a sea container drawbridge ramp. PAWS Construction and Maintenance was fined $256,000 for failing to provide a safe workplace after the company pleaded guilty in the Fremantle Magistrates Court on Wednesday. Nathaniel Good, 19, had been employed with the company for three weeks when he assisted his supervisor to lower a 250kg ramp and was fatally struck, suffering a traumatic head injury in November 2021. A court found the worker had not been properly trained to raise or lower the ramp when he was injured. It was also revealed a winch was installed to assist with raising and lowering the ramp, but it was not operational at the time of the incident. WorkSafe Commissioner Sally North said it was a sad reminder of the need to have safe work procedures in place for all hazardous tasks in a workplace. 'There was no documented procedure or instructions for the task, which clearly should have been treated as hazardous,' she said. 'Being hit by falling objects is a high-risk area for injuries and fatalities in the construction sector and across other sectors, and I encourage workplace leaders to consult workers and review their controls in relation to preventing objects from falling. 'In considering the types of objects that can fall, it is essential not only to consider dynamic work tasks such as the movement of loads but also other heavy materials that are installed or stored in such a way that they could fall if something goes wrong. 'Some examples are stored stone slabs, large industrial gates, roller doors and motors for roller doors, ramps that are required to be raised and lowered and similar objects.'
RNZ News
12 hours ago
- RNZ News
Crushed to death, fingers lost: the machines hurting workers
The conveyor belt at a Timaru lumberyard that 23-year-old Ethyn McTier was trapped and killed by in July this year. Photo: Supplied A timber worker is having to relearn how to play the guitar and trumpet - and how to write - after losing two fingers in a machine without a guard. His passion, music, is now bittersweet, he says. A 37-year-old man is dead; seven months into a packing job, asphyxiated after he fell onto a fast-moving conveyor belt. The belt lacked a guard. Graham McKean of the Maritime Union counselled the man's workmates at the factory just days later. "They were distraught," he said. "It was horrific, I just, the feeling in the air, the hair on the back of my neck, the chill that ran down my spine. "Simply because the proper guard had not been put in place." Then there is Ethyn McTier , dead at 23, crushed in an unguarded conveyor belt. Ethyn McTier was crushed by an unguarded conveyor belt. Photo: Supplied These are cases brought to public attention in recent months, where machinery safety failings were only penalised or fixed after the fact. An engineer who gives expert evidence in courts and to inquests after workers are killed or hurt is angry. "Expert witness work mostly makes me angry," Dr Joe Bain said. "Because time after time, after time, we wind up writing reports that highlight that somebody's been seriously injured, if not killed, by a known problem, where there is an existing solution ... that simply hasn't been applied." In eight years giving such testimony, he has yet to come across a tragedy that could not have been averted. It's mostly not malice, he said, but businesses not knowing what "good looks like". But could it be that now a solution to New Zealand's poor and dangerous record with machinery is in sight? The government thinks so. Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has launched a quickfire consultation with factories aiming to simplify rules around keeping machines safe - to make what "good" looks like clear. "The Health and Safety in Employment 1995 Regulations for machine guarding are out-of-date, incomplete and very prescriptive, requiring very specific protection for woodworking and abrasive grinding machinery," she said in a statement on Thursday. "The review will consult on simplifying these out-of-date rules" and guidance, she said. Make that a "major" rewrite, said the Employers and Manufacturers Association. The EMA joined with ACC last year to come up with a harm reduction plan. "No funding was provided for the implementation of this plan," said ACC, which instead has been seeking companies with good ideas about what to do. ACC, like Worksafe, faces financial strictures limiting or cutting its programmes. That could be financially wrong-footed, when manufacturing injuries are costing ACC $165 million a year and mounting. Business Canterbury's Leeann Watson senses a breakthrough after years of frustration - she and the EMA are among those puzzling over why work on machine safety started then stopped - buoyed by van Velden fronting 100 of her members last year, an unusual move by a minister she believes. "There is no business that I know of that is not wanting to keep their people safe," Watson said. "They just want good clarity and good consistency." Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden is consulting with factories aiming to simplify rules around keeping machines safe. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER Yet the 1995 regulations to be simplified say very little about machine guards; by contrast, the guidance and existing standards amount to over 1000 pages. Yet it leaves out "the useful bit", Bain said. What is that? Simple European standards, complete with pictures, called Type Cs, that show how to keep most of the most commonly used machines safe - "all the work has been done". Bain (who declared to RNZ his involvement with the Labour Party) told van Velden about Type Cs at her roadshow on overall work safety reform in Napier last year. "I've told her. "Anybody who knows me is sick of hearing me talk about Type C standards" - he wrote about them in Safeguard magazine in January - "Pretty much, they nod their heads and go, 'Yeah, that makes sense'. "Whether it's come through as clearly from other contributors to the roadshows, I don't know." As it turns out, not so much. An initial summary of roadshow submissions alluded to it. But a summary out on Wednesday of all the submissions - including written ones covering over a thousand people - left it out. This later summary only mentions machinery and guards once. It is, in fact, seven pages shorter than the 46-page summary that covers only the roadshow. Mike Cosman is nervous at what the minister is saying. "Yesterday it was scaffolding. Today it's guarding and the messaging seems to be the same, which is lowering standards, which means making it cheaper." The consultant, a veteran of previous government workplace safety reviews, helped submit to the roadshow on behalf of a thousand members of the Institute of Safety Management. "The approach that we take is already risk based. It's all based on the concept of doing what's reasonably practicable in the circumstances. "And anything that undermines that fundamental approach, which has been around now for 50 years, I think is dangerous." At the same time, he acknowledged the way the rules should be implemented needed to be clearer. The Maritime Union's Graham McKean voiced similar worries. Bain was clear on the problem and the solution. "Generally speaking, that's not as a result of malice," he said of harm to workers, "it's as a result of businesses not having enough information made available to them. Not having a clear idea of what good looks like." Import Type Cs tomorrow and give them to businesses for free, was his message to the government. There is no sign of that happening. "There are many standards referenced across the health and safety at work regulations; it is not standard practice for government to pay for accessing these," van Velden told RNZ. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
13 hours ago
- RNZ News
Timber worker re-learning how to write, play guitar after losing two fingers in machine
The conveyor belt at a Timaru lumberyard that 23-year-old Ethyn McTier was trapped and killed by in July this year. Photo: Supplied A timber worker is having to relearn how to play the guitar and trumpet - and how to write - after losing two fingers in a machine without a guard. His passion, music, is now bittersweet, he says. A 37-year-old man is dead; seven months into a packing job, asphyxiated after he fell onto a fast-moving conveyor belt. The belt lacked a guard. Graham McKean of the Maritime Union counselled the man's workmates at the factory just days later. "They were distraught," he said. "It was horrific, I just, the feeling in the air, the hair on the back of my neck, the chill that ran down my spine. "Simply because the proper guard had not been put in place." Then there is Ethyn McTier , dead at 23, crushed in an unguarded conveyor belt. Ethyn McTier was crushed by an unguarded conveyor belt. Photo: Supplied These are cases brought to public attention in recent months, where machinery safety failings were only penalised or fixed after the fact. An engineer who gives expert evidence in courts and to inquests after workers are killed or hurt is angry. "Expert witness work mostly makes me angry," Dr Joe Bain said. "Because time after time, after time, we wind up writing reports that highlight that somebody's been seriously injured, if not killed, by a known problem, where there is an existing solution ... that simply hasn't been applied." In eight years giving such testimony, he has yet to come across a tragedy that could not have been averted. It's mostly not malice, he said, but businesses not knowing what "good looks like". But could it be that now a solution to New Zealand's poor and dangerous record with machinery is in sight? The government thinks so. Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has launched a quickfire consultation with factories aiming to simplify rules around keeping machines safe - to make what "good" looks like clear. "The Health and Safety in Employment 1995 Regulations for machine guarding are out-of-date, incomplete and very prescriptive, requiring very specific protection for woodworking and abrasive grinding machinery," she said in a statement on Thursday. "The review will consult on simplifying these out-of-date rules" and guidance, she said. Make that a "major" rewrite, said the Employers and Manufacturers Association. The EMA joined with ACC last year to come up with a harm reduction plan. "No funding was provided for the implementation of this plan," said ACC, which instead has been seeking companies with good ideas about what to do. ACC, like Worksafe, faces financial strictures limiting or cutting its programmes. That could be financially wrong-footed, when manufacturing injuries are costing ACC $165 million a year and mounting. Business Canterbury's Leeann Watson senses a breakthrough after years of frustration - she and the EMA are among those puzzling over why work on machine safety started then stopped - buoyed by van Velden fronting 100 of her members last year, an unusual move by a minister she believes. "There is no business that I know of that is not wanting to keep their people safe," Watson said. "They just want good clarity and good consistency." Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden is consulting with factories aiming to simplify rules around keeping machines safe. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER Yet the 1995 regulations to be simplified say very little about machine guards; by contrast, the guidance and existing standards amount to over 1000 pages. Yet it leaves out "the useful bit", Bain said. What is that? Simple European standards, complete with pictures, called Type Cs, that show how to keep most of the most commonly used machines safe - "all the work has been done". Bain (who declared to RNZ his involvement with the Labour Party) told van Velden about Type Cs at her roadshow on overall work safety reform in Napier last year. "I've told her. "Anybody who knows me is sick of hearing me talk about Type C standards" - he wrote about them in Safeguard magazine in January - "Pretty much, they nod their heads and go, 'Yeah, that makes sense'. "Whether it's come through as clearly from other contributors to the roadshows, I don't know." As it turns out, not so much. An initial summary of roadshow submissions alluded to it. But a summary out on Wednesday of all the submissions - including written ones covering over a thousand people - left it out. This later summary only mentions machinery and guards once. It is, in fact, seven pages shorter than the 46-page summary that covers only the roadshow. Mike Cosman is nervous at what the minister is saying. "Yesterday it was scaffolding. Today it's guarding and the messaging seems to be the same, which is lowering standards, which means making it cheaper." The consultant, a veteran of previous government workplace safety reviews, helped submit to the roadshow on behalf of a thousand members of the Institute of Safety Management. "The approach that we take is already risk based. It's all based on the concept of doing what's reasonably practicable in the circumstances. "And anything that undermines that fundamental approach, which has been around now for 50 years, I think is dangerous." At the same time, he acknowledged the way the rules should be implemented needed to be clearer. The Maritime Union's Graham McKean voiced similar worries. Bain was clear on the problem and the solution. "Generally speaking, that's not as a result of malice," he said of harm to workers, "it's as a result of businesses not having enough information made available to them. Not having a clear idea of what good looks like." Import Type Cs tomorrow and give them to businesses for free, was his message to the government. There is no sign of that happening. "There are many standards referenced across the health and safety at work regulations; it is not standard practice for government to pay for accessing these," van Velden told RNZ. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
13 hours ago
- RNZ News
Timber worker learning how to write, play guitar after losing two fingers in machine
The conveyor belt at a Timaru lumberyard that 23-year-old Ethyn McTier was trapped and killed by in July this year. Photo: Supplied A timber worker is having to relearn how to play the guitar and trumpet - and how to write - after losing two fingers in a machine without a guard. His passion, music, is now bittersweet, he says. A 37-year-old man is dead; seven months into a packing job, asphyxiated after he fell onto a fast-moving conveyor belt. The belt lacked a guard. Graham McKean of the Maritime Union counselled the man's workmates at the factory just days later. "They were distraught," he said. "It was horrific, I just, the feeling in the air, the hair on the back of my neck, the chill that ran down my spine. "Simply because the proper guard had not been put in place." Then there is Ethyn McTier , dead at 23, crushed in an unguarded conveyor belt. Ethyn McTier was crushed by an unguarded conveyor belt. Photo: Supplied These are cases brought to public attention in recent months, where machinery safety failings were only penalised or fixed after the fact. An engineer who gives expert evidence in courts and to inquests after workers are killed or hurt is angry. "Expert witness work mostly makes me angry," Dr Joe Bain said. "Because time after time, after time, we wind up writing reports that highlight that somebody's been seriously injured, if not killed, by a known problem, where there is an existing solution ... that simply hasn't been applied." In eight years giving such testimony, he has yet to come across a tragedy that could not have been averted. It's mostly not malice, he said, but businesses not knowing what "good looks like". But could it be that now a solution to New Zealand's poor and dangerous record with machinery is in sight? The government thinks so. Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has launched a quickfire consultation with factories aiming to simplify rules around keeping machines safe - to make what "good" looks like clear. "The Health and Safety in Employment 1995 Regulations for machine guarding are out-of-date, incomplete and very prescriptive, requiring very specific protection for woodworking and abrasive grinding machinery," she said in a statement on Thursday. "The review will consult on simplifying these out-of-date rules" and guidance, she said. Make that a "major" rewrite, said the Employers and Manufacturers Association. The EMA joined with ACC last year to come up with a harm reduction plan. "No funding was provided for the implementation of this plan," said ACC, which instead has been seeking companies with good ideas about what to do. ACC, like Worksafe, faces financial strictures limiting or cutting its programmes. That could be financially wrong-footed, when manufacturing injuries are costing ACC $165 million a year and mounting. Business Canterbury's Leeann Watson senses a breakthrough after years of frustration - she and the EMA are among those puzzling over why work on machine safety started then stopped - buoyed by van Velden fronting 100 of her members last year, an unusual move by a minister she believes. "There is no business that I know of that is not wanting to keep their people safe," Watson said. "They just want good clarity and good consistency." Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden is consulting with factories aiming to simplify rules around keeping machines safe. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER Yet the 1995 regulations to be simplified say very little about machine guards; by contrast, the guidance and existing standards amount to over 1000 pages. Yet it leaves out "the useful bit", Bain said. What is that? Simple European standards, complete with pictures, called Type Cs, that show how to keep most of the most commonly used machines safe - "all the work has been done". Bain (who declared to RNZ his involvement with the Labour Party) told van Velden about Type Cs at her roadshow on overall work safety reform in Napier last year. "I've told her. "Anybody who knows me is sick of hearing me talk about Type C standards" - he wrote about them in Safeguard magazine in January - "Pretty much, they nod their heads and go, 'Yeah, that makes sense'. "Whether it's come through as clearly from other contributors to the roadshows, I don't know." As it turns out, not so much. An initial summary of roadshow submissions alluded to it. But a summary out on Wednesday of all the submissions - including written ones covering over a thousand people - left it out. This later summary only mentions machinery and guards once. It is, in fact, seven pages shorter than the 46-page summary that covers only the roadshow. Mike Cosman is nervous at what the minister is saying. "Yesterday it was scaffolding. Today it's guarding and the messaging seems to be the same, which is lowering standards, which means making it cheaper." The consultant, a veteran of previous government workplace safety reviews, helped submit to the roadshow on behalf of a thousand members of the Institute of Safety Management. "The approach that we take is already risk based. It's all based on the concept of doing what's reasonably practicable in the circumstances. "And anything that undermines that fundamental approach, which has been around now for 50 years, I think is dangerous." At the same time, he acknowledged the way the rules should be implemented needed to be clearer. The Maritime Union's Graham McKean voiced similar worries. Bain was clear on the problem and the solution. "Generally speaking, that's not as a result of malice," he said of harm to workers, "it's as a result of businesses not having enough information made available to them. Not having a clear idea of what good looks like." Import Type Cs tomorrow and give them to businesses for free, was his message to the government. There is no sign of that happening. "There are many standards referenced across the health and safety at work regulations; it is not standard practice for government to pay for accessing these," van Velden told RNZ. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
CBS News
5 days ago
- CBS News
South Jersey man killed in accident on Atlantic City Expressway, New Jersey State Police say
A 31-year-old man is dead after he was accidentally run over by a work truck in a construction zone on the Atlantic City Expressway in Winslow Township on Friday, New Jersey State Police said. NJSP was notified about an incident in the construction zone on the Atlantic City Expressway east, near milepost 36.5 in Winslow Township, Camden County, at around 7 a.m. Friday. Investigators said an attenuator truck was reversing as it picked up cones from a shoulder lane closure when it accidentally ran over the 31-year-old worker. The truck driver didn't realize there was a worker behind the vehicle when they were backing up, according to NJSP. State police said the 31-year-old worker was from Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, but did not provide a name for the victim. The incident is still being investigated.
