Families Call for Legislative Reform to Enforce Coronial Safety Recommendations

Following a ruling that certain heavy machinery brakes are unsafe, victims' families call for enforced responses to coronial recommendations in New Zealand.

By: AXL Media

Published: Apr 24, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

Source: RNZ Pacific

The "Inherently Unsafe" Verdict on Cardan Shaft Brakes

A years-long coronial inquiry into the 2018 death of Auckland construction worker Graeme Rabbits has culminated in a scathing assessment of cardan shaft parking brakes. Coroner Erin Woolley officially ruled that the braking system, widely used in telehandlers and other heavy machinery, is inherently unsafe. The finding follows an eight-year private investigation by the victim's father, Selwyn Rabbits, who identified critical failure points in the system that led to his son's fatal injuries on an Auckland worksite.

Despite the coroner’s clear message, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has publicly disagreed with the "inherently unsafe" classification. The agency maintains that the system is safe provided it is serviced, tested, and utilized correctly. This fundamental disagreement between judicial findings and executive agency policy has sparked a heated debate regarding the weight of coronial recommendations in New Zealand’s justice system.

A Demand for Transparency and Accountability

Under current New Zealand law, organizations are not required to follow a coroner’s recommendations or even provide a formal justification for rejecting them. Selwyn Rabbits and other advocates are calling for the establishment of a formal register to track recommendations and organization responses. The goal is to ensure that critical safety warnings do not "languish" in archives without prompting tangible change in the sectors they target.

This push for transparency is shared by families across different sectors, including mental health. Ricky Gray, whose brother Shaun died in a psychiatric ward in 2014, noted that coroners often issue "carbon copy" recommendations across different cases because the initial warnings were never addressed. Advocates argue that without a mandatory "explain or comply" mechanism, the coronial process fails to prevent future tragedies, effectively rendering the inquiry process toothless in the face of bureaucratic resistance.