
In an emotional victim impact statement in the Queenstown District Court yesterday, Carrie Whyte said the loss of her partner of 17 years, Grant Treleaven, had been "devastating" for her and their 9-year-old son.
"No words can fully describe the void that has been left behind, and no compensation can ever account for the life lost.
"GT wasn’t just another man killed at work, he was everything to us."
Judge Catriona Doyle sentenced Todd Contracting Ltd and Wilson Contractors Ltd to fines and reparation totalling more than $750,000 for failures that caused Mr Treleaven’s death.
On March 28, 2023, he was driving a forward-tip dumper down an earth ramp into an excavated pit when it tipped over frontwards, pinning him underneath.
He died at the scene.
Wilson Contractors had sub-contracted Mr Treleaven’s employer, Todd Contracting, to carry out the earthworks for the installation of a new wastewater treatment plant.
A WorkSafe investigation found the ramp was steeper than recommended in the dumper’s operation manual, and Mr Treleaven’s licence to operate the vehicle had expired five months earlier.
The companies had failed to ensure the ramp’s gradient was reduced to minimise or eliminate the risk of the dumper tipping, failed to ensure he was competent and licensed and had not adequately informed him about the safe use of the dumper on a slope.
Last November, both companies admitted a single charge each of failing to comply with a duty to ensure Mr Treleaven’s health and safety.
Ms Whyte told the court her partner had owned and operated the Glenorchy Cafe for many years before temporarily closing it in 2020 during the Covid-19 epidemic.

She asked Judge Doyle to "send a clear message to not only the defendants, but to the wider industry".
"This was not an accident, it was a tragic and avoidable loss of life."
Judge Doyle said the ramp had been identified as a risk, "but the risk assessment and remedial work fell short of what was expected".
Because Wilson Contractors had been prosecuted for a health and safety incident in 2018, she applied a 10% uplift to the starting point for its fine to "send a clear message to repeat offenders".
"If you’ve been warned previously and sanctioned by the court, you have an aggravating obligation to ensure strict compliance, because people’s lives literally depend on it."
She applied discounts for the companies’ co-operation with WorkSafe, their expressions of remorse, their guilty pleas immediately after the charges were amended and reparation they had already paid to the victim’s family.
She fined Wilson Contractors $332,750, to be paid in instalments over five years.
Todd Contracting was ordered to pay a fine of $25,000, payable over three years.
Judge Doyle also ordered the companies to each pay Mr Treleaven’s family reparation of just over $200,000, noting Wilson had already paid $65,000 and Todd $10,000 prior to sentencing.
Todd Contracting director Clifton Todd and Wilson Contractors managing director Tony Wilson were in court for the sentencing, but both declined to comment when approached by the Otago Daily Times.