‘Obvious hazard’: Company fined $350K after worker killed by meat-packing machine

WorkSafe prosecuted Kakariki Proteins Ltd after one of its workers died in April 2021. Photo / RNZ

Modifications made to a machine that bagged meat have been blamed for the death of a worker at a factory last year.

Dwayne Summers died in April 2021 when he was crushed by the machine while reaching inside to unclip a bag, instead of using a rake or paddle. The company had modified the machine twice in the last 10 years, removing guards and also adding other pieces to it.

Kakariki Proteins Limited employees had complained about the machine and they also lacked the supervision to make sure they were using it properly but the company was unaware that they were using their hands to reach inside and were accessing it from the back.

Today, in the Palmerston North District Court the Judge David Smith fined Kakariki Proteins $350,000 and ordered it to pay $130,000 in reparation to Summers’ family.

Summers’ family requested the Summary of Facts not be read out before the court and his mother and brother’s names were also suppressed.

His mother, by way of a victim impact statement, told the court that after her son died the family had to move because they could no longer afford the rent.

“It’s hard to put into words how Dwayne’s death has affected me, since he’s gone I wish I wasn’t here.”

“I would still make his lunch for him after he died, I’d be halfway through before I realised I didn’t need to anymore…”

His brother told the court he’d sold all of his fishing gear because he couldn’t stand to look at it after Dwayne died.

“There’s so many things I can’t do anymore because it reminds me of him.”

WorkSafe prosector Karina Sagaga told the court that modifications made to the machine in 2017 created two distinct crushing hazards.

She said workers had raised issues with the machine, there was no training done about the risks in using it and no monitoring of the workers using it.

“This is a case with an obvious hazard,” she said.

“The company uses a range of different machines and should have been aware of the risk of exposure to crushing hazards.”

Sagaga told the court that Summers was one of the workers tasked with changing out the bags, and the company was unaware that he and other workers were doing this from the back and using their hands instead of a rake or paddle.

“It was in auto mode most of the time so it would lift and lower every few minutes and workers would reach inside to unclip the bags, they wouldn’t know when it would go up and down,” she said.

It was when reaching in to grab a bag that Summers was crushed by the machine.

However, counsel for Kakariki Proteins Olivia Welsh told the court the machine moved slowly, demonstrating that speed with her hands before the court.

“This machine moves incredibly slowly. It’s purpose is purely to level the meal, like jiggling your cereal bowl to level your cereal,” she said.

“As you can appreciate, with this kind of speed, any suggestion that someone could stick their hand or any other body part and get caught didn’t occur to the defendant because you’ve got plenty of time to escape.”

“Clearly not,” Judge Smith replied.

However, Walsh said that it was a very simple machine, essentially a metal-framed cube and required limited worker interaction.

“We’re not talking about your classic unguarded piece of machinery or an unguarded saw blade or nip points in conveyors,” she said.

“That is important because it goes to the obviousness of the hazard.”

Walsh said the company had received expert advice on how to make modifications to the machine, but it was also unaware that workers were using it incorrectly by accessing it from the back.

“Until this incident Kakariki had an unblemished safety record.”