A Bay of Plenty forestry company today expects to resume operations suspended since a digger driver died when his machine became submerged on Wednesday.

WorkSafe has begun investigating the death at the Timberlands processing plant in Kaingaroa Forest between Rotorua and Taupō.

Timberlands chief executive officer Ryan Cavanagh earlier said a “third-party contractor” working on site at the plant died after a long-reach excavator being used to clear a drain became submerged shortly after 11am.

Police say emergency services responded about noon, but rescue attempts were “unsuccessful”.

Specialist teams involved in the emergency response and recovery efforts included the Serious Crash Unit, CIB and the National Dive Squad, police say.

In a statement on Wednesday night, Ryan described the man’s death as a “tragic fatality” and said he was “deeply saddened”.

He says Timberlands’ priorities were supporting the man’s family and co-operating with the accident investigators to understand what the company and its third-party contractors could do to ensure this did not happen again.

Yesterday, a Timberlands spokesman told the Rotorua Daily Post the company was still working to understand the “full sequence and timeline of events” that led to the tragedy.

“While only the immediate accident scene was cordoned off by the police [on Wednesday], given the tragedy we voluntarily suspended operations across our entire KPP [Kaingaroa processing plant] site,” the spokesman says.

He says WorkSafe completed preliminary site investigations on Thursday and KPP operations remained suspended “as a sign of respect to the whānau of the deceased”. Operations were likely to resume today.

Kaingaroa Village is on the edge of the 190,000ha forest. Photo / Andrew Warner.

“A site blessing with a local kaumātua has taken place,” the spokesman says.

He says the company could not disclose the identities of the contracting firm or the worker at this time.

Police also declined to do so on Thursday.

A police spokeswoman says the dive squad arrived at the scene at 4pm on Wednesday and the excavator and deceased were recovered about 10.30pm.

A WorkSafe NZ spokesman says its investigation into the fatality was under way and inspectors had been at the scene gathering evidence since Thursday.

WorkSafe extends its sympathy to the whānau, friends, and colleagues of the worker who died.

Representatives from the Kaingaroa Forest Village Council declined to comment at this time.

Second digger tragedy

It’s less than two weeks after another digger operator died when the machine he was operating tipped over in the Waimatā River near Gisborne.

Police, Fire and Emergency NZ, Hato Hone St John and the Trust Tairāwhiti rescue helicopter were called to the property about 20km up Waimatā Valley Rd.

“The excavator rolled, trapping the male operator inside the cab, which went under water about 10m off the riverbank,” an emergency services spokesman says.

“The cab of the machine was completely submerged.”

The alarm was raised by other contractors present.

“Others at the scene swam out to the machine to try to free the driver, but they were unable to get him out,” the spokesman says.

A police inquiry was under way on behalf of the coroner.

-Bay of Plenty Times.