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Special Investigators - TV Series

Special Investigators - Season 1

Special Investigators follows workplace health and safety inspectors for the Department of Labour, Civil Aviation Authority and Maritime New Zealand going about their daily business, and showcases the variety of hazards people can encounter in the workplace. Below are the episodes the Department featured in.

Episode 1 - Motueka tractor fatality

A Nelson man who was fatally crushed when his tractor tipped over a bank had worked with tractors for most of his life. One simple act could have saved his life - fastening his seatbelt.

Episode 2 - Hydraulic truck tray

A normally cautious man, earth-moving business owner Lindsay Rankin knew the split-second before the hydraulics on his truck failed, that he'd made a crucial error of judgement.

Episode 2 - Plasterboard

Playing in a partly completed house near his home ended tragically for a seven-year-old, West Auckland boy in June 2004. Sheets of plasterboard that had been left leaning against a wall on the unsecured building site fell and fatally crushed him.

Episode 4 - Houston Motors

Nelson mother Sue was collecting her car from a local garage after a morning in town with her sons Alex and Cody. As she went to pay the bill, three-year old Cody was fatally injured when a four-wheel drive vehicle hit him in the garage forecourt.

Episode 4 - Incinerator burn

A 20-year old worker at a West Auckland furniture factory suffered burns to his face from a fire flash when using an outdoor incinerator in August 2004. He was new to his job at Trewheeler Manufacturing, having started a little over a week before the accident occurred.

Episode 6 - Roof fall fatality

The death of a well-known Christchurch roofing contractor is a reminder that nothing is more important than safety when people are working at heights.

Episode 6 - PTO shaft

A sharemilker at Rotomanu on the West Coast was lucky to survive an accident that happened when he was spreading fertiliser using a sower powered by a tractor. A passerby discovered Barry Matheson prone in a paddock wearing only a sock and a gumboot.

Episode 7 - Fertiliser truck

Contract lime spreader Mike Rowley was working on a steep farm paddock near Timaru 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 with a broken neck.