A father of three fears he will lose a leg after a horrific injury caused by a slip on yellow tactile dots on the footpath of an Auckland train station.
Auckland Transport has confirmed to the Herald it is “urgently investigating all sites” and is “progressively removing” the yellow studs, which have caused several other injuries. However, the dots remain at hundreds of places and the cost to replace them is $15,000 for each site.
Glen Eden man Leo Breva, 43, broke his leg in four places and says there is still a possibility of amputation after he slipped on the plastic dots at Sunnyvale train station in West Auckland on a rainy day in May this year.
He has heavy scars running from his knee to ankle on both sides of his leg, muscle and nerve damage, and plates and bolts securing the bones below his knee and above his ankle.
Breva was heading into the city for work, had just tagged on with his Hop card and was walking toward the platform when his right leg slipped on the wet dots and he landed heavily on his left.
He said he heard a “pop and a crack” and was in “immediate and excruciating pain”.
“My wife had just dropped me at the station so I called her and said ‘please come back’, I knew straight away it was broken.”
Breva was hospitalised for 12 days following two long and extensive surgeries. As well as plates and bolts to repair the snapped bones, complications meant he lost 20 per cent of the muscle in his leg and has a loss of sensation from nerve damage.
“The injury was so severe the emergency doctors asked me if someone had attacked me with a bat,” he said.
“They could not believe that injury could happen by slipping on these yellow dots. It was so extensive and really difficult for them to repair.”
When surgeons were operating during six hours of surgery they realised 20 per cent of the muscle in Breva’s leg had died.
“Because of that complication, they had to slice all the way up my leg to relieve some of the fluid that was building up inside,” he said.
“They told my wife they had to slice it to save the leg because I could have lost it.”
He says he will lose the leg if he has further complications.
Breva said he had no idea when he stepped on to the yellow dots that they were slippery when wet.
He said they were like “walking on ice” when wet and differ from the safer, yellow, precast concrete pavers. Both are designed to help the sight-impaired navigate the city.
Breva is demanding immediate action from AT and said at the very least there should be warning signs so commuters and pedestrians are aware of the dangers.
“If this was a workplace they would have to remove the danger immediately. I don’t know how this is allowed to happen.”
The hard plastic dots that caused Breva’s accident are the subject of emails and complaints to AT from others who have been injured.
Today the Weekend Herald can reveal AT has known about the dangers and slip-hazard from the dots for at least five years. Staff emails and customer complaints obtained under the Official Information Act date back to at least 2018.
Internal emails show in September 2018 a directive was made to ensure the plastic dots were “not to be used in new builds” because of the slip hazard.
Emails also reveal “budget restraints” mean the dots remain at hundreds of sites around Auckland - including train stations, bus platforms and the corners of busy intersections.
The cost to replace the hard plastic dots with the approved concrete pavers is $15,000 per site, AT says.
In the past two weeks, the Weekend Herald has spoken to five other people hospitalised after slipping on the dots.
These include three women who have slipped at the same Takapuna intersection - one breaking her back, one breaking her ankle and another breaking her leg in three places.
Another woman is in Auckland City Hospital awaiting surgery after slipping on the yellow dots in central Auckland a week ago and breaking her fibula, tibia and heel.
A week before that a university student needed surgery after slipping and breaking her ankle on another site in Takapuna.
Complaints to AT reveal even more injuries - including a woman who broke her leg on tactile dots in Browns Bay and who has asked for compensation.
That location, on Beach Rd in Rothesay Bay, was added to a priority list of five sites to be removed and replaced under this year’s budget.
There was also a complaint from a man who slipped on the yellow dots at a train station and was narrowly missed by a train.
Emails show even AT staff were not immune to injury, with one employee slipping and injuring their elbow at a train station.
In the email from September 2018, the staff member asks:
”What I want to know is when there will be a fix … or a sign warning of the danger at least on the section I ride from Monday to Friday.
“I am a customer as well as an employee and I still have an open case logged and should not have to go chasing a project manager for a response.”
One email from a contract manager at AT said “budget constraints” meant there was to be no “wholesale upgrade or even limited upgrades” of the slippery tactiles.
“We currently have large areas of tactiles within Takapuna that are now ‘non-compliant’ and or coming off that require replacing,” the man said.
The email went on to express concern that AT “with a strong emphasis on safety is not taking a more pro-active approach on this matter regards replacement or upgrading”.
“Particularly as I understand the overall safety budget was quite large.”
When asked by the Weekend Herald about the latest serious injuries, AT’s executive general manager of public transport services Stacey van der Putten said the agency was aware of them.
“The relevant teams are aware of and have reported these incidents - so we can investigate what needs to be done to eliminate immediate concerns,” van der Putten said.
“We strive to meet safety and accessibility needs. While the tactile pavers have met building code standards, the recent incidents are deeply concerning for us.
“It is so important that everyone is kept safe on our network, no matter how they are travelling.
“We will be urgently investigating all sites across the network for our renewal programme.”
Van der Putten said AT was progressively removing polyurethane tactile studs and replacing them with concrete tactile pavers.
AT has approved the removal and replacement of the slippery yellow dots at five sites around Auckland for this financial year.
The train station at Sunnyvale that caused Leo Breva’s accident and that could cost him his leg is not one of them.
They allege the Crown ignored Treaty obligations by not engaging with them.