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Dec 03, 2023

Man killed by detached air hose

You are not permitted to download, save or email this image. Visit image gallery to purchase the image. Downer employee Graham Robert Brown (67), of Dunedin, died on October 19, 2012, while he was

You are not permitted to download, save or email this image. Visit image gallery to purchase the image.

Downer employee Graham Robert Brown (67), of Dunedin, died on October 19, 2012, while he was helping to clear a major landslip on the Milford Rd, near the Homer Tunnel.

An inquest was held in Invercargill yesterday before Otago-Southland coroner David Crerar. Mr Brown's job on the Milford Rd was to drill holes in large boulders so they could be destroyed with explosives.

He did this using an air track drill powered by an air compressor.

Kevin Watson said he and Mr Brown had been using an air compressor which kept stopping, so Mr Brown decided to switch to another compressor hired from McNeill Drilling.

Mr Brown changed the air hose on the compressor, so it could be connected to the equipment being used.

After this had been done, Mr Watson turned the compressor on and let it idle, before turning the air tap to full.

The new compressor was more powerful than the old one and Mr Watson commented ''it had a lot of grunt''.

About five minutes later, while both men were standing beside the compressor, the end of the air hose detached and struck Mr Brown on the side of the head.

He was wearing a safety helmet.

He suffered unsurvivable head injuries and was declared dead by a doctor about 12.30pm.

The hose also struck Mr Watson on the left leg and thigh.

The inquest heard it was standard practice to attach whip restraints or whip safety socks to air hose fittings, to stop hoses which blew detaching completely and swinging about.

Several witnesses said they did not know whether Mr Brown had fitted a whip restraint, but said he had always done so in the past.

No restraint or part of a restraint was found when the area was searched.

Mr Watson said Mr Brown was ''pedantic'' about fitting restraints and had disciplined him in the past when he had forgotten to do so.

Downer Te Anau avalanche programme manager Wayne Carran said Mr Brown was a master driller who had worked in the industry for almost 40 years.

He was watching Mr Brown and Mr Watson when there was a ''huge boom like an explosion''.

It was so loud it was heard by men working 5km away.

''Brownie was lifted two feet off the ground. He fell straight down and bounced along the ground.''

Worksafe New Zealand inspector Terry Keene said Downer was initially charged with failing to take all practicable steps to ensure Mr Brown's safety on the work site.

The company pleaded not guilty.

Later, it was considered there was a low likelihood of the charge succeeding and it was withdrawn.

Mr Crerar asked Downer zero harm compliance manager Neville Gray if there was ''too much deference'' from employees to the safety procedures carried out by more senior colleagues, particularly those like Mr Brown, considered to be ''at the top of their game''.

He favoured a system where a second employee was expected to check the work of another, possibly using a written check sheet.

Mr Gray said some cross-checking procedures had been instigated since Mr Brown's death but it was not possible to cross-check every job.

Mr Crerar reserved his decision.

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