A mother who lost her son when the tank he was working on exploded says she doesn't understand how the company could operate so shoddily for so long.
Jamey Lee Bowring was thrown more than 100m from the tank, at Salters Cartage in South Auckland, when it exploded in 2015.
Jamey Bowring Photo: Facebook
Company director Ron Salter was sentenced yesterday to four-and-a-half months home detention, while he and his company were fined more than $400,000 over the breaches a WorkSafe investigator said were on par with those at Pike River mine.
Mr Bowring's mother Sarah Ferguson told Morning Report while it was nice to have some closure, the sentence did seem quite light.
Ms Ferguson said Salter set up a scholarship in her son's name, at Huntly College - even though she had asked him not to, as her son never went to that school.
"It's been really upsetting ... we asked him specifically not to", she said. "And he got a discount on his sentence for setting it up, which is most upsetting for the family."
A spokesperson for Mr Salter said the scholarship was initially set up in Jamey Bowring's name but when they realised Ms Ferguson did not want her son's name on the scholarship, they removed it.
"His name was removed from the scholarship and all forms ... but his name does feature on the website as the reason for the Scholarship being established," the spokesperson, Kirk MacGibbon, said.
Ron Salter was fined $400,000 and sentenced to four-and-a-half months' home detention over Jamey Lee Bowring's death Photo: Supplied
"The fact is that Mr Salter has committed around a quarter of a million dollars to fund the scholarship, and the appreciation and thanks that we received from College staff and students alike was amazing", he says.
"We can understand the continuing grief and pain. But out of that tragedy has come a scholarship that will benefit future generations of Huntly College."
Ms Ferguson said she could not believe Salters Cartage was able to operate without proper compliances for so long, and hoped companies flouting the rules in future would be caught early.
"I don't know how his [company] was able to operate for all those years without compliance ... and people knowing he wasn't compliant, and nothing being done about it."
"I hope this never happens to another family."
