Known risks ignored: sawmill penalised after two serious injuries

The first occurred in June 2024, when timber kicked back from an inadequately guarded stack saw at Double J Smallwoods. The worker operating the saw suffered a 20-centimetre laceration to his right arm, requiring hospitalisation and ten weeks off work. In sentencing, Judge Warren Cathcart observed that the company “had kept WorkSafe in the dark” about the incident.

Seven weeks later, another worker at the site was crushed between two forklifts. His injuries included spinal and pelvic fractures, a broken ankle, and internal bleeding. Judge Cathcart described it as “an accident waiting to happen”.

He noted that timely notification to WorkSafe after the first incident would likely have prevented the second. The judge added that Double J Smallwoods’ attitude to worker safety over this period was “cavalier, in my view”.

WorkSafe found systemic safety failures across machine guarding, risk assessment, traffic management, training, equipment maintenance, and regulatory compliance. These were well‑known risks, subject to existing guidance and prior enforcement, and left unaddressed until workers were seriously injured.

“WorkSafe had formally told Double J Smallwoods to fix serious safety risks on its site. Two workers were seriously injured because those warnings were not acted on. Businesses have both a legal and moral responsibility to act, not wait,” says WorkSafe’s central regional manager, Nigel Formosa.

“The stack saw at the centre of the first incident had been in operation since the late 1990s, but age and familiarity are not substitutes for proper assessment. That history didn’t make things safe, it just meant the risk went unaddressed for longer.”

WorkSafe says the case echoes problems being picked up in its current safety blitz through the wood product manufacturing sector.

“This case is sadly not an outlier. The risks here – unguarded machinery, poor traffic management, undertrained workers – are patterns we continue to see across manufacturing. We are asking every business in the sector to look honestly at their own operations and act before someone is hurt,” says Nigel Formosa.

Manufacturing is a priority sector for WorkSafe as it has the highest rate and number of injuries with more than a week off work. Over the past decade, injury rates have increased or stayed the same, even when they declined in other industries. 

WorkSafe’s role is to influence businesses and workers to meet their responsibilities to keep people healthy and safe. When they do not, we will take action.

Background

• Double J Smallwoods was sentenced in the Gisborne District Court on 18 March 2026
• Judge Cathcart imposed a fine of $601,250 and ordered reparations of $100,754 for the victims.
• Double J Smallwoods was charged under sections 36(1)(a) and 48(1) and (2)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015