A construction worker was injured on an Auckland high-rise retirement village building site this morning.
Hato Hone St John said it answered a call to a St Johns site earlier today.
“Hato Hone was notified of an incident in St Johns at 8.05am and responded [with] one ambulance to the scene. We assessed and treated one patient who was transported to Auckland hospital in a serious condition,” a statement said.
Summerset Group is building hundreds of new apartments and a hospital on the 2.6ha site fronting St Johns Rd in the city’s eastern suburbs.
A company spokeswoman said today the business had been advised about the accident.
It is not known at this stage what condition the worker is in, or what injuries were suffered.
Peter Savoy, Summerset’s national construction manager, said: “The incident involved a contractor who slipped on a scaffolding platform onto his back on that platform. Emergency services were called and responded, and the injured man was taken from the site in an ambulance. The contractor is now recovering in hospital. We understand he has not suffered any broken bones or major injuries and is recovering well. WorkSafe were contacted and are looking into the matter and we, of course, are assisting them with their inquiries.”
Summerset takes health and safety very seriously and will be examining at what, if anything, can be done to prevent an incident like this from occurring again, Savoy said.
Last November, there was a fatality at the same site.
Construction site scaffolder Michael Noche was a migrant from the Philippines and had been dreaming of bringing his wife and children here, a union chief says.
Mikee Santos, a Union Network of Migrants coordinator, said Noche’s death last November at that site was a tragedy.
“The family’s years of planning to come to New Zealand have now been shattered - the devastation. They planned to start a new life here but this tragedy means the loss of a father and husband and their dream of coming to this country. That cuts deep not only on that family but every Filipino family in New Zealand,” Santos said.
Santos said Noche had been in New Zealand for about four years and was working at height on the site of Summerfield St Johns, 188 St Johns Rd.
Summerset had planned to build a 344-unit village at the site but that was scaled back somewhat.
In 2019, Summerset said it had been given the green light by the Environment Court to build its proposed retirement village in St Johns, Auckland and that it had bought land in the Selwyn district southwest of Christchurch for a new site.
The retirement village operator says there were no appeals to the Environment Court decision and St Johns is a mature suburb with few retirement or aged-care options.
The new village would provide a home to more than 400 residents and the company had more than 200 people in its database interested in the new village so knew the demand existed, it said four years ago.
The village will offer the full continuum of care from independent living to rest home and hospital care and have a purpose-built dementia centre.
Two to six-storey buildings bordering St Johns Bush and St Johns Theological College were announced in 2019.
It is that site where two accidents have now occurred, one fatal.
Inquiries have been made to WorkSafe about its investigations into Michael Noche’s death there last year. A spokesman said today: “The investigation is ongoing. WorkSafe has up to a year from the incident date to complete its investigation.”
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.