Nelson Weekly
03 548 2770
41 Nile Street East, Nelson
03 548 2770 03 548East, 2770 41 Nelson 41 Nile Nile Street Street East, Nelson
Locally Owned and Operated
41 Nile Street East, Nelson
Wednesday 3 May 2023
Page 6
Nelson’s piano man
Te Puoho’s 100th
LIFTOUT
Page 21
Aimex accident victim breaks silence TRACY NEAL
Open Justice Reporter
If it weren’t for a gourmet sandwich, Brook Palmer might not be alive. The young apprentice had been gleefully telling a colleague at Nelson-based marine engineering firm they worked at that his partner had made lunch for him, and he’d been looking forward to eating it.
So when the 18-year-old didn’t show up for lunch, his colleague knew to go looking for him. The colleague found him lifeless at the bottom of the boat and immediately called for help from a cellphone. “I believe my son is alive because of his friend and that earlier conversation between the two regarding a planned lunchtime meeting,” his mother Paula Palmer says, four year on.
Brook had worked at Nelson-based industrial engineering firm Aimex for only about six months when a workplace accident cut short his ambition of a career as a marine engineer. The effects of that day on July 29, 2019, still linger in Brook’s tired expression, and in his mother’s anger. Brook had been using a volatile brake cleaner to clean the engine bay of a large catamaran and was
unfamiliar, as it turned out, with how to use it safely because. According to WorkSafe NZ, this was due to the company failing to develop a safe system of work relating to hazardous substances. It had also failed to properly supervise, train and instruct its workers on working with hazardous substances. For this, Aimex was sentenced in July 2021. It received a fine of $250,000 and was ordered to pay
$65,000 in reparation and $1434 in costs after admitting a charge under sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. What Brook and others didn’t know was that just days before his accident another worker had also been overcome by fumes carrying out the same task. “Employee X” - as he was named in court documents - had been
SEE PAGE 4
Lost ring found at Tāhunanui Beach KATE RUSSELL
Holly Cumming with her nana, Beth Cumming, who passed away in September 2022. Photo: Supplied.
When Holly Cumming lost a sentimental ring at Tāhunanui Beach earlier this year, she thought she would never see it again. However, thanks to the local metal-detecting community, she has now been reunited with the special piece of jewellery. The ring, made by local jeweller Benjamin Black and gifted to Holly by her late nana, disappeared when Holly was swimming at the beach in early January. “Nana gave it to me for my 21st, so it is very special to me,” says Holly, who lives in Auckland.
“She passed away in September last year, which was a difficult time. Our family always goes down to Nelson each Christmas and we kept that tradition going last year.” Holly says she was “absolutely devastated” when she realised the ring was not on her finger. “Losing something that my nana had given me, with her passing away still being quite raw, was hard.” Holly and her mum decided to return to the beach at low tide to see if they could find it.
SEE PAGE 2
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