Michele Bastiaansen suffered leg wounds and fractures to her neck vertebrae, humerus and wrist when she fell from a trailer towed by a tractor driven by her husband Francis.
The compensation -- $60,000 for emotional harm and $30,000 for consequential loss – was ordered in a case in the Gore District Court following an investigation by WorkSafe New Zealand.
AgriCentre South Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health and safety of the couple from Mataura, Southland.
The company in 2015 traded in a 2002 New Holland tractor and determined its brakes were defective. It replaced the vehicle’s brake master cylinders but did not determine why the parts had failed.
The tractor was delivered to the Bastiaansens’ farm for a trial in 2016, and Francis Bastiaansen told an AgriCentre South employee that the brakes appeared “soft”.
He told another employee soon after that the tractor would not drive.
Another employee remedied the problem and at the same time topped up the brake fluid reservoir and bled the brake system. The report says he did not appear to have checked the brake pedal to see if the issue of soft brakes had been rectified.
In early April 2016 the Bastiaansens were using the tractor and a trailer to carry timber to a storage shed. Driving up a 25-degree slope, Francis Bastiaansen applied the brakes but they failed to work and the combination rolled backwards causing the trailer to jack-knife and detach from the tractor; the trailer hit a bank and rolled, throwing Mrs Bastiaansen into the roadway where the tractor rolled over her, causing a “de-gloving” of her left leg, a large open wound on her right leg and breaking several bones.
During the hearing, Mrs Bastiaansen read an impact statement that said the accident had turned her life upside down, from both physical and psychological injuries. She spoke of the horror of the leg injury and loss of dignity, independence and self-confidence. She had endured eight operations on her leg.
In her judgement, Judge Bernadette Farnanarm concluded the defendant exposed the Bastiaansens to a risk of death or serious injury by supplying a tractor with faulty brakes.
The company will be fined at a later date.
