A Queenstown tourism operator has been ordered to pay a former employee more than $30,000.
Southern Discoveries Ltd was sentenced in the Queenstown District Court yesterday for the incident on February 27 last year where the victim, who was granted name suppression, fell 2.1m down an open hatch on the company’s scenic cruise vessel Spirit of Queenstown.
Judge Russell Walker also fined the company $160,000 — to be paid at $4000 per month, from next April — and ordered it to pay $9000 in costs to Maritime New Zealand.
The company admitted to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act.
At the time of the fall, the staff member was cleaning internal windows ahead of the vessel departing for Mt Nicholas and while preparing to kneel on seats inside the boat, she took a step backwards and fell more than 2m down an open hatch.
The woman was not aware the hatch was open and no barriers existed to prevent her fall.
At the time, crew on board the boat were inducted, but staff — such as the victim — were not.
The process at the time for an open hatch was for one staff member to call out ‘‘open hatch’’, and other crew and staff to repeat that back, to acknowledge understanding of the hazard.
While there were cones on the boat, they were not placed by the open hatch at the time.
Immediately following the incident, the process had changed, Judge Walker said.
‘‘Simply requiring the crew to call out the words ‘hatch open’ to other crew members ... in my view, was completely inadequate.’’
The victim sustained an anterior wedge compression to her T12 vertebrae.
While no surgery was required, she was fitted with a back brace.
She was ultimately made redundant by the company in the wake of Covid-19 because the Mt Nicholas Farm excursions were no longer operating.
Addressing Judge Walker yesterday, the woman said the company had ruined her life.
‘‘I can still remember the second of my fall and how ... I felt when I landed on my back.
‘‘I heard the sound of my vertebrae breaking.’’
She feared she had been paralysed for life.
The woman said she used to be fit and healthy, but could no longer participate in the activities she enjoyed, including skiing and running.
Her mental health had also suffered as a consequence, and she had difficulty sleeping.
‘‘My life quality and wellbeing are ruined due to the negligence of this company.’’
In sentencing, Judge Walker said it was evident the woman felt ‘‘let down, forgotten and abandoned by what she says was an uncaring employer’’.
She essentially felt as though she had been forced into early retirement, given it was difficult for her to gain other employment due to the nature of her injury.
However, he said it was ‘‘evident’’ from a restorative justice report Southern Discoveries chief executive Tim Hunter ‘‘does not necessarily share the view of [the victim]’’.
It was clear there had been ‘‘a degree, at least’’ of misunderstanding and miscommunication between the parties.
He took into account the firm’s guilty plea, its remorse, that it took part in restorative justice, its co-operation with the investigation, unblemished previous record and the remedial steps it took immediately following, and ongoing since, the incident to reduce the fine from a starting point of $300,000 to $160,000.
He ordered the emotional harm reparation and ‘‘consequential costs’’ to the victim — to be calculated between the defence and prosecution — to be paid within seven days.
