A drainage company has been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars after a worker was temporarily buried alive under 20 cubic meters of dirt.
Two workers from R and L Drainage were on a job at a Te Kuiti farm in Waikato in early 2021 when the wall of a trench they were excavating gave way and engulfed one of them.
The worker had only the top of his head visible and the coworkers had to use his hands and a spade to dig him free.
"The rescuer initially used his hands to clear the dirt away so the victim could breathe, and then used a spade until he could pull him out," a WorkSafe investigation found.
The victim suffered a collapsed lung, a broken ribcage, sternum, and collarbone, and now lives with PTSD.
WorkSafe said the safety on the site was at an extremely poor standard, and that the incident was "preventable".
R and L Drainage was sentenced Thursday at Hamilton District Court and ordered to pay a $275,000 fine and reparations of $45,000.
"There's a right way and a wrong way to do excavations - and cutting vertical sides to 3 metres deep then sending a worker in is certainly not the way," WorkSafe area investigation manager Paul West said.
"This was a death trap and the victim literally had to run for his life.
"Anyone digging such a deep trench should be aware of the possibility of collapse and should take proper precautions. We know how to dig trenches safely - it's not hard to take the necessary safety measures," West said.
