On the waterfront: Stevedoring firm to spend $425K after dock worker's near-fatal fall from logs

Tuesday, 20 October 2020

The poorly-repaired hand rail broke off as the port worker went to take a rest break, and he plummeted eight metres onto the concrete wharf below.

One of New Zealand’s biggest stevedoring companies has agreed to spend more than $425,000 on training and safety improvements after a dock worker was badly injured in a fall from a logging ship berthed in Tauranga.

The 28-year-old victim slipped and fell, after a safety railing he was relying on broke. He plummeted eight metres from logs stacked on the ship onto the concrete wharf below.

The impact shattered the bones in his legs and arms and he also suffered internal injuries that saw him hospitalised for 56 days, and having to undergo numerous surgeries.

The accident, in December 2017, has had lasting repercussions for both the Mount Maunganui-based stevedoring firm ISO Limited and the shipping firm China Navigation Company Ltd, which owned the log carrier Pakhoi.

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The hand rail had been damaged by port workers in India months before the accident, and shoddy repair work meant it was still a danger.

In July, a Tauranga District Court judge fined China Navigation $24,000 and ordered the firm to pay $30,000 to the victim after pleading guilty to a charge under the Maritime Transport Act for “dangerous activity involving ships and marine products”.

Now Maritime NZ, which brought the prosecution against both companies, has accepted what is known as an “enforceable undertaking” from ISO that will cost $425,000, as well as further financial amends for the victim.

The dock worker fell from logs stacked above the logging ship’s deck, and fell eight metres onto a concrete wharf at the Port of Tauranga (file photo).

The undertaking – a first for the maritime industry – is a legally-enforceable agreement that is an alternative to prosecution.

According to Maritime NZ’s central region compliance manager Michael-Paul Abbott, it was “not an easy option”.

“We took into account the significant commitment made by ISO to raising health and safety standards in the industry and the fact that the company had committed to provide ongoing support for the injured worker and his family.'

ISO consulted with the Amalgamated Stevedores Union, the injured man and his family, the Port Industry Association, Port of Tauranga, and ship charterers when it was drafting the undertaking.

“By working openly with all these groups and in what it has offered … ISO has shown a serious commitment to improving safety,” Abbott said.

“The money it is committing to spend is an investment in safety that will help stevedores in ports around the country.”

As part of the agreement, ISO will develop and deliver a national training program for management personnel on working at heights in stevedoring operations.

This will include risk management, the supply and maintenance of safety equipment; training for all of ISO’s 400 stevedoring staff; and ensuring the injured worker was involved in developing and delivering the training.

The company will also research and develop solutions for access to and egress from above-deck cargo and alternative methods of descending in emergency situations.

The firm will also make “suitable” donations to the Philips Search and Rescue Trust and the pre-school the injured man’s children attend.

The hand rail that failed, causing the fall, had been damaged by stevedores when the Pakhoi was docked in India in July 2017. It had become detached and was welded back onto the ship.

However, the repair work was poor and would not comply with the requirements of any approved structural steelwork standard. As a result, the hand rail and the ladder below it were unsafe to use.

The Pakhoi arrived in Tauranga to load logs in December 18, 2017. Neither the master of the Pakhoi nor any members of the ship’s crew conveyed any information about the repairs to the hand rail and ladder to ISO before or during loading.

At about 7.20pm the following day, the stevedore began to disembark from Pakhoi for a scheduled break. He grabbed hold of the hand rail, which immediately broke completely free at its base where it had been welded, and he fell.

The worker was saved from serious head injury by his helmet and his backpack riding up under his head as he fell. Yet the injuries that he did suffer will affect him for the rest of his life.

At the time of the judgement against China Navigation in July, Abbott hailed the decision of the court.

“Poor maintenance, and poor communication caused an incident that nearly killed this man,” he said.