The High Court has dismissed a WorkSafe prosecution over the death of an SAS trooper who died in training.<\/p>\n
Lance Corporal Nicholas Kahotea died during a May 2019 counter-terrorism training exercise at an Army special operations training centre in Ardmore, South Auckland.<\/p>\n
He was trying to perform what is called a bump landing – stepping off a hovering helicopter onto the rooftop of a building – when he fell several storeys on to concrete.<\/p>\n
The 35-year-old was flown to Auckland City Hospital where he died.<\/p>\n
Justice Timothy Brewer discharged the New Zealand Defence Force in a brief hearing at the Auckland High Court this morning.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged Kahotea’s wh\u0101nau and the loss of their beloved family member, who was an “elite soldier”.<\/p>\n
“He died trying to protect us… we should all be grateful for his service,” the judge said. “I certainly am.”<\/p>\n
Today’s hearing comes after Justice Brewer ruled in December that the Army was exempt from the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA).<\/p>\n
“As should be obvious, a safety-focused statute such as the HSWA cannot apply entirely to the Armed Forces,” the judge said in a written decision on 20 December.<\/p>\n
“They exist to do dangerous things in dangerous environments, in New Zealand and overseas. They need to train to do those dangerous things,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
WorkSafe had earlier charged the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) for failing to ensure Kahotea’s health and safety under the Act.<\/p>\n
The NZDF applied to the District Court for the charge to be dismissed, but the application was declined in 2021.<\/p>\n
It then sought a judicial review last September, once again to dismiss the charge in the current proceeding – concluded this morning with Justice Brewer’s discharge of the Army in open court.<\/p>\n
In a statement after the High Court hearing, the NZDF said it does its best to ensure people’s safety, but the reality was soldiers are required to be in harm’s way.<\/p>\n
“It is a very real risk that those who serve must deal with every day in their duties on behalf of New Zealand,” Special Operations Component commander Sean Bolton said.<\/p>\n
An Army-wide review of safety in training was done after Kahotea’s death.<\/p>\n
“In particular, the Army conducted a Court of Inquiry which was reviewed externally by a King’s Counsel, and the NZDF fully co-operated with WorkSafe during its investigation,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said Kahotea will be remembered as valued member of the SAS and Army.<\/p>\n
“He was a much-loved father, brother, son, friend and an extremely capable special forces operator,” Bolton said.<\/p>\n
Kahotea joined the Army in 2006 as an engineer, climbing the ranks to become a New Zealand Special Air Service (SAS) operator eight years later.<\/p>\n
“He was an outstanding soldier and a top bloke,” Chief of Army major general Boswell said in a social media post informing the public of his death in 2019.<\/p>\n
Source: RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The High Court has dismissed a WorkSafe prosecution over the death of an SAS trooper who died in training. Lance Corporal Nicholas Kahotea died during a May 2019 counter-terrorism training exercise at an Army special operations training centre in Ardmore, South Auckland. He was trying to perform what is called a bump landing – stepping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3499,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3497\/revisions\/3499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}