A Hawke's Bay orchard owner has been sentenced for health and safety failures after a five-year-old was run over by a forklift at their worksite last year.
The Worksafe investigation revealed the boy was taken to the orchard in January 2022 by his grandparents who worked there, and was under "limited supervision" when he wandered into the path of the reversing forklift, operated by a 14-year-old worker.
The Kylie and Simon Halford Partnership, which runs the orchard, was sentenced at the Hastings District Court on December 14 and ordered to pay a $7000 fine and $25,000 in repatriations to the boy who survived, but suffered significant complex fractures to his hip bones and was hospitalised for a month.
The business faced a charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, in failing to comply with a duty that exposed someone to a risk of death or serious injury.
WorkSafe’s area investigation manager, Paul Budd said the business' risk management was "verbal and informal" because of language barriers, which he described as "not good enough".
"Translating your safety information for workers, if necessary, goes a long way to keeping them safe.
“Better traffic management would also have made a big difference to safety. This could have included exclusion zones to separate vehicles from people, the use of barriers when operating the forklift, clear signage, and separate entry and exit points for people and vehicles,” said Budd..
Budd also indicated the forklift was "poorly maintained" with no basic safety features such as reversing lights, mirrors, flashing lights, or a horn. The driver was underage, and the site had no written traffic management plan for forklift use.
Worksafe said it was "common" for the young driver to be behind the wheel and the owner had not done enough to establish his age.
"Businesses must remember that workers under 15 are not allowed to drive vehicles on worksites," Budd said.
Children are now prohibited from the orchard during operating hours, and the child has made a full recovery.
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