Drainage firm fined after man buried alive in 'death trap'

Navigation for News Categories

File photo.
Photo:

A drainage company has been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars after a worker was temporarily buried alive under 20 cubic meters of dirt.

Two workers from R and L Drainage were on a job at a Te Kuiti farm in Waikato in early 2021 when the wall of a trench they were excavating gave way and engulfed one of them.

The worker had only the top of his head visible and the coworkers had to use his hands and a spade to dig him free.

“The rescuer initially used his hands to clear the dirt away so the victim could breathe, and then used a spade until he could pull him out,” a WorkSafe investigation found.

The victim suffered a collapsed lung, a broken ribcage, sternum, and collarbone, and now lives with PTSD.

WorkSafe said the safety on the site was at an extremely poor standard, and that the incident was “preventable”.

R and L Drainage was sentenced Thursday at Hamilton District Court and ordered to pay a $275,000 fine and reparations of $45,000.

“There’s a right way and a wrong way to do excavations – and cutting vertical sides to 3 metres deep then sending a worker in is certainly not the way,” WorkSafe area investigation manager Paul West said.

“This was a death trap and the victim literally had to run for his life.

“Anyone digging such a deep trench should be aware of the possibility of collapse and should take proper precautions. We know how to dig trenches safely – it’s not hard to take the necessary safety measures,” West said.