Risk-taking led to life-changing accident

19 June 2006

Contract lime spreader Mike Rowley’s life was turned literally upside down after a serious workplace accident two years ago.

The Timaru man was working on a steep farm paddock when his truck rolled, crashing down the hillside into a gully at the bottom, shedding 1.5 tonnes of fertiliser as it went. Mike was trapped upside down in the crushed cab for five hours with a broken neck.

The story of his accident and recovery features on tonight’s episode of Special Investigators on TV ONE – the final in this series of the show.

Department of Labour health and safety inspector Hamish Piercy examined the accident scene and talked with the farm owner, who found Mike after the March 2004 accident. The slope appeared too steep to be negotiated safely by the highly experienced worker.

Hamish Piercy’s enquiries established that the farm owner was not a factor in the accident. He had ensured, as far as possible, that the truck was safe coming on to the property.

Mike knew what he was doing and was familiar with the land. In this case, t he owner had correctly relied on Mike’s experience and judgement to do the job safely. Vehicle testing ruled out any problems with the truck, which was owned by the contractors who employed Mike.

Mike, permanently paralysed following the accident, confirmed to Hamish Piercy from his hospital bed that the decision about where to drive on the property was entirely his own. When he decided to turn down the steep hill and come back up again he thought at worst the truck would slide down the hillside.

But Mike badly misjudged the truck’s rollover point. He was operating the truck at the very margins of what it could handle, and the steepness of the slope was his ultimate undoing. As the weight of the load of fertiliser shifted, the truck tipped and rolled several times.

After the truck rolled, Mike – hanging upside down in the cab - knew he was badly injured.

“I knew I’d broken my neck and I could just see this pool of blood forming on the floor of the truck. I stayed alive by counting and that allowed me to regulate my breathing, which was difficult.”

He was thankful to be alive and was keen to prevent anyone else suffering the same fate through participating in Special Investigators.

Hamish Piercy’s investigation concluded that no party would be prosecuted in this case. “The primary focus is to actually find out what happened, learn from that and take that back to the industry so that others can learn from it and reduce the chance of it happening.”

Picture caption: A pile of fertiliser marks the point where Mike Rowley’s truck tipped and rolled on this steep Timaru paddock. His truck, pictured after it had been righted, rolled several times to rest on its cab, breaking Mike’s neck in the process.

To the journalist: please note that health and safety services formerly referred to as Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) should now be referred to as the Department of Labour.