WorkSafe is cautioning all businesses that work at height to review their safety systems, following sentencing for a fall that nearly killed a KiwiRail employee.
The man fell 10 metres while installing a telecommunications pole in Whanganui in October 2023. He suffered a torn artery, a torn liver, a broken sternum, a punctured left lung, nine fractured vertebrae, and five fractured ribs. He later developed blood clots in his legs which required surgery to remove.
WorkSafe's investigation identified fundamental failures in how KiwiRail managed the introduction of the telecommunications pole. The Oclyte pole was a new design for KiwiRail, and different from the wooden poles workers had previously used. Despite this significant change, there was no detailed specific risk assessment conducted, no dedicated procedures were developed, and workers lacked training in risk assessment for complex work at height.
"When you introduce new infrastructure, you can't assume existing procedures will be adequate. Businesses need to step back, conduct a full risk assessment, and consider the changes required," says WorkSafe's central regional manager, Nigel Formosa.
The investigation found a fall arrest system was installed but not in use at the time and climbing pegs on the pole had been incorrectly installed. KiwiRail did also not provide safer methods, such as a mobile elevated work platform, for the job.
"Businesses must first ask whether the job can somehow be done from ground level. If you can't eliminate the need to work at height, consider using an elevated work platform or scaffolding. Fall arrest systems should be the last line of defence - not the first option," says Nigel Formosa.
Falls from height remain one of the leading causes of workplace death and serious injury in Aotearoa, yet they are entirely preventable with proper planning.
WorkSafe's role is to ensure businesses and workers meet their health and safety responsibilities and hold them to account when they don't. State-owned enterprises are no exception.
The man's remarkable recovery took 10 months, and he has since returned to work.
Read WorkSafe's guidance on working at height
Background
- KiwiRail was sentenced at Whanganui District Court on 20 November 2025.
- Judge Davidson imposed a fine of $220,000 and reparations of $28,500.
- KiwiRail was charged under sections 43(2)(a), 48(1) and 48(2)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015:
- Being a PCBU having a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the way in which plant or a structure, namely an Oclyte telecommunications pole, is installed, constructed or commissioned ensures that the plant or structure is without risks to the health and safety of persons who use the plant or structure for a purpose for which it was installed, constructed or commissioned, did fail to comply with that duty, and that failure exposed persons, to a risk of death or serious injury from a fall from height.
