Safety gear no good if it is not used

Media Release

29 September 2014

Safety gear no good if it is not used

Roofing company W. Goile Roofing Limited has been fined $45,000 and ordered to pay reparation of $3,000 after one of its employees fell from a height of 2.5 metres.

Cory Tui was screwing down roofing iron at a kindergarten in Marton when he stepped backwards and fell. He suffered a severed tendon and cuts to his wrist after coming into contact with a sheet of iron that had been cut and bent upwards to allow roof flashings to be attached. He was hospitalised for two days and was off work for two and a half months.

At the time of the fall Mr Tui and the company director Warwick Golie were both wearing safety harnesses, but neither had been attached to an anchor point. In addition, edge protection had been delivered to the site but had not been installed.

W. Golie Roofing was sentenced today in the Wanganui District Court under the Health and Safety in Employment Act for failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of an employee.

WorkSafe New Zealand’s Chief Inspector Keith Stewart says there is simply no excuse for not using proper safety equipment – particularly when it is readily to hand.

“It beggars belief that Mr Tui and Mr Golie were both wearing a safety harness but they weren’t secured. When Mr Golie was asked why they were not attached he replied ‘I just got lazy’. That’s not good enough.

“Working at height is always risky. Both the harnesses and the edge protection should have been used.

“Safety gear is no good to anyone if it’s not being used,” says Keith Stewart.

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