Shared milk worker and farmer fined after motorcycle accident at livestock crossing

photo: Provided by/NZTA

WorkSafe says a motorbike rider is lucky to be alive after becoming entangled in a bungee cord across a public road on the West Coast.

Shared milkers will rope across 100 kilometres of road in 2021 to relocate 800 cows to the Maruia Valley.

Due to a lack of signage, the rider didn’t see the rope until it was too late – he hit it, fell off his bike, slid along the road, and hit a fence post.

He was hospitalized with a broken right rib and a lacerated right kidney.

Milk-sharing company Te Koru Wai Limited and farmer Dairy Holdings Limited have just been sentenced after being charged by WorkSafe for health and safety breaches.

Te Koru Wai Limited was fined $220,000 and ordered to pay compensation of $13,200, while Dairy Holdings Limited was fined $211,700 and ordered to pay compensation of $8800.

In sentencing, Judge Jane Farish said it was a very clear hazard that was simple to avoid and the obstruction of a public road should have set off major alarm bells.

WorkSafe national investigations manager Casey Broad said the injuries were serious and the rider was lucky to be alive.

“The company did not notify WorkSafe, leaving it up to the victim to notify WorkSafe themselves weeks later.

“There were no signs warning of livestock crossings in the direction the riders were travelling. NZTA guidance requires farmers to install temporary warning signs far enough in front of the crossing when more than 50 animals are being moved.”

Broad said livestock movement through rural New Zealand was common and the risks to drivers were well known.

“It is safest to have signs and farm workers present when cattle are crossing.

“Farms, like any other business, have a responsibility to ensure workers are safe and it is our job to influence businesses to meet those responsibilities and hold them to account if they don’t.”