Three companies have been fined a total of almost $120,000 dollars and ordered to pay combined reparation of $20,000 after a woman was struck by a reversing forklift at a kiwifruit pack house at Mount Maunganui.
Erica Machado, 33, suffered a fractured ankle which required pins inserted in it, as well as a large laceration to one of her legs in the May 2013 accident.
She had been straightening rows of boxes in an area of the pack house designated for the assembly of kiwifruit packaging trays when the forklift backed into her.
The company that employed her, LRK Trays Ltd, the pack house operator and employer of the forklift driver Mount Pack and Cool Ltd, and the company that supplied the kiwifruit trays, Orora Packaging Limited (formerly Amcor Packaging (NZ) Ltd) were all convicted under the Health and Safety in Employment Act of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure that she was not harmed at work.
The Tauranga District Court yesterday fined the companies $39,375 each. The $20,000 in reparation was split evenly between the three companies.