Higgins Contracting has been ordered to pay fines and reparations of nearly $500,000 over the deaths of three road workers in Bay of Plenty last year.
WorkSafe says there was no temporary traffic management in place and the trio's deaths were preventable.
David Eparaima, Dudley Raroa and Haki Hiha were killed while clearing a culvert near Whakatane in February last year. Another truck clipped a stationary Higgins vehicle, causing it to shunt forward and crush the trio.
The truck's driver, David Cox, was sentenced to 250 hours community work as a result.
Ngarepo Eparaima, David's brother, says not a day goes by where he doesn't think about him.
"He had this gruff nature about him when you first met him, but he really melted after a while," he says.
David's death left him "stunned".
"We just couldn't believe it."
Simon Humphries from WorkSafe says Cox wasn't the only party at fault. The health and safety watchdog found the trio's employer Higgins failed to provide traffic management or carry out a proper risk assessment.
"If that means closing half a road or taking other preventative measures, then that's what the risk assessment would've shown them," Humphries says.
Higgins was ordered to pay a $270,000 fine and $225,000 in reparations.
In a statement, Higgins says it's been working with NZTA to improve training for its traffic management teams. It says it's also put additional safety initiatives, risk assessments and safety briefings in place.
Ngarepo says although Higgins "did wrong", it has also done "a lot of things right" as a result of the trio's deaths.
"A lot of adjustments in their procedures, and that's all you can ask," he says. "You can't bring them back from the dead, but it's all about [saying] let's not let this happen again."
