A Dannevirke forestry contractor has been ordered to pay more than $260,000 after his employee fell to his death from a cliff while felling trees alone and unsupervised.
Trevor Beale was prosecuted by WorkSafe NZ following the death of his worker, Tejay Alan Debenham, who was struck by a falling tree limb and fell from a cliff at a rural property on Weber Road on November 17, 2023.
Debenham had been working alone, without supervision, on a site that contained multiple high-risk hazards - including large wind-affected trees, suspended and interlocked branches, restricted escape routes and trees growing close to an eroded cliff edge.
Beale appeared in the Dannevirke District Court on Monday, where he was ordered to pay $254,740 in reparation to Debenham's family, along with $1,000 in legal costs and a $5,000 fine.
WorkSafe central region manager Nigel Formosa said the case carried lessons for the wider forestry sector.
"Tree felling is high-risk work. Before it begins, businesses must know who is competent to do it, what supervision is required, and how the site's hazards will be controlled. Taking someone's word for their training or experience is not enough," Formosa said.
He said a proper induction needed to go beyond a simple conversation.
"It should be structured, documented and checked for understanding, with clear task limits and controls that are reinforced throughout the work," Formosa said.
Formosa said inexperienced workers needed close supervision, and that high-risk jobs should not go ahead just because a usual supervisor was unavailable.
"Where people work alone or remotely, businesses need a reliable check-in and check-out system that reflects the level of risk, assigns responsibility for monitoring, and triggers action if contact is missed. Those arrangements must be confirmed - not assumed," he said.
The prosecution found four reasonably practicable steps had not been taken by Beale, confirming Debenham's experience, training and qualifications, completing an adequate induction, ensuring appropriate supervision, and putting in place an adequate check-in and check-out procedure.
Beale was charged under sections 36(1)(a), 48(1) and 48(2)(b) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, relating to a failure to comply with a duty to ensure workers' health and safety so far as reasonably practicable, where that failure exposed a person to a risk of death or serious injury.
SHARE ME