As a man was clocking off from his shift at a haulage yard, he was hit from behind by an agriculture vehicle and collected in its bucket. The result was a life-altering traumatic brain injury that left him permanently without the ability to taste and smell.

Grant Bowling, now 63, was knocked unconscious in the Taranaki workplace incident and subsequently hospitalised with brain bleeds.

Now, two years on, the father-of-three and grandfather-of-five is still grappling with the ongoing consequences of his brain injury.

Bowling suffered many financial and physical repercussions in the accident but it has been the changes to his personality and the strain it has put on his family that perhaps upsets him the most.

 “Since the accident, I get irritable, angry and emotional and this has affected my relationship with my family,” he told New Plymouth District Court on Tuesday.

“My nature has always been laid-back and easygoing but now I have a short fuse. This really bothers me.”

Following the August 24, 2020, accident, a WorkSafe investigation took place and found Bowling’s employers at the time, Westown Haulage Limited and Westown Agriculture Limited, had an ineffective workplace traffic safety plan.

A lack of oversight in that area was the chief health and safety failure, the work safety watchdog said.

Westown Haulage Limited and Westown Agriculture Limited were sentenced in New Plymouth District Court on Tuesday. Photo / Tara Shaskey

Owned by David and Phillippa Thomas, the family-managed companies operate in the agricultural transport industry and provide farm services from a shared site on Cowling Rd in New Plymouth, where the accident occurred.

The businesses were jointly charged with exposing an individual to risk of harm or illness.

Following guilty pleas to the charges, laid under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, sentencing took place yesterday and left the companies with a bill of more than $320,000.

The court heard that moments before the accident, Bowling, who did seasonal work for Westown Agriculture Ltd, was using an app on his phone to clock off from work at Westown Haulage Ltd.

While on his phone, he had his back turned to his colleague who was driving a telehandler, a vehicle similar to a tractor used for lifting loads.

The colleague became distracted, looking over his shoulder while continuing to drive forward at a slow pace.

Bowling was struck from behind by the bucket of the telehandler, attached to the vehicle’s arm, causing him to fall into it.

While unconscious for a time, he came to and was helped out of the bucket by another worker.

Bowling suffered brain haemorrhages which resulted in three days of hospitalisation, permanent loss of taste and smell, sensitivity to light and concussion.

He had to take eight months off work before leaving the Westown businesses and continues to suffer headaches, repetition of his words and poor short-term memory.

Once a long-haul truck driver, Bowling now only manages short-haul, and simple household chores leave him feeling exhausted.

Judge Tony Greig, who heard the prosecution, said on a number of occasions before the accident, the need for traffic management was identified as being required for the site.

But a decision was made to hold off with creating a formal plan until some offices that were being built were completed.

A risk assessment was not carried out for this decision and an interim traffic management plan was not put in place, the judge said.

There was also no risk assessment around the use of mobile phones. And while vehicle movements in the yard were identified as a risk, only administrative controls were considered necessary such as reduced speed signage.

Judge Greig said the systems in place at the time were “completely inadequate methods of controlling traffic”.

However, the companies had paid for external health and safety advice which it had relied on “to a significant extent”.

Judge Greig said the companies previously had an “impeccable” health and safety record, they co-operated with WorkSafe throughout the investigation, and had taken steps to ensure its workers’ health and safety since the accident.

He said “it was quite clear” they took their health and safety obligations seriously and had felt let down by the adviser.

The judge said relying on the adviser was a factor that “on a point of principle” reduced the Westown companies’ culpability but they were not entirely absolved of blame.

Judge Greig fined the companies $270,000 and ordered they pay Bowling $50,000 reparation and $6806 for other losses.

Another entity, which has interim name suppression, was also charged in relation to the accident but has pleaded not guilty.

Following the sentencing, WorkSafe’s area investigation manager Paul West said traffic management was a well-known challenge to the Westown businesses, but neither took any steps to address it.

“From time to time, Westown gave verbal directions to workers about traffic movement onsite, including to ‘use common sense’,” he said.

“Relying on verbal directions in this way was completely inadequate.”