KiwiRail has been fined $290,000 and ordered to pay $42,000 in reparations after two workers were shocked by overhead lines.
By Felix Walton of RNZ
The sentencing comes after KiwiRail pleaded guilty to charges from WorkSafe earlier this year.
The two men were performing maintenance on the overhead lines near Parnell Train Station early in the morning of September 4, 2024, but did not notice they had moved beyond the planned work site.
They were each shocked by 25,000 volts of electricity.
One of the men had three surgeries and a number of skin grafts.
A support person read his victim impact statement to the court.
"I received burns to the left side of my face, neck, upper body, chest, back side of my left shoulder, and left arm down to my wrist," they said.
"Since the incident, I have undergone and am still undergoing emotional and physical difficulties."
He said he had moved to New Zealand in 2018, followed by his wife and daughter in 2022.
"We do not have family support here, which has made this situation even more challenging," he said.
"[My wife] has had to manage everything on her own, caring for me, supporting our daughter, and handling all daily responsibilities on her own."
KiwiRail was ordered to pay him $36,000 for emotional harm, and the other worker $6198.
KiwiRail's guilty plea and earlier reparations to the victims brought the fine from a starting point of $425,000 down to $290,000.
'It should not have happened'
In a statement following the sentence, KiwiRail chief metro officer David Gordon apologised.
"We sincerely apologise for this incident. It should not have happened, and our guilty plea reflects our acceptance that we fell short of the high standards we expect to maintain."
He noted that immediately after the accident, KiwiRail issued a stop work order while it conducted a rapid risk review.
"We implemented controls identified in the review including prohibiting any changes to planned work, improving visibility of isolation limits by introducing blue lights and additional measures for verifying that overhead lines are de-energised before work."
Gordon also said maintenance workers now used personal voltage detectors, even when working in areas that had been fully isolated.
"While we accept that our systems and processes were not sufficient to keep workers safe on the night in question, we are committed to making sure everyone gets to go home safely at the end of every day, and are constantly reviewing and improving our systems."
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