By Associated Press
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND – JULY 19, 2002
A driver who crashed a truck, spilling 20 tons of rat poison into the sea and polluting a pristine coastal area last year, has been fined after admitting he fell asleep just before the accident.
The dyed poison pellets turned the coastal waters bright green shortly after the crash 14 months ago near Kaikoura on South Island, 120 kilometers (75 miles) southeast of the capital Wellington.
Bryan George McIntosh, 32, was fined 5,000 New Zealand dollars (US$2,400) Wednesday for crashing his truck and trailer and spilling the poison down a cliff into the sea. The poison contained brodifacoum, which is toxic to birds, fish, and mammals and accumulates in body tissues, particularly the liver.
Collection of abalone and mussels from the area is still banned 14 months after the crash because poison contamination remains above acceptable levels.
The coastline borders a marine area where whales, dolphins, seals, and rare seabirds feed and frolic, watched by tens of thousands of tourists a year.
Environment Court Judge Jeff Smith told McIntosh the fine took into account the effects on the “pristine” environment in the area.
McIntosh’s lawyer, Judith Walshe, said the accident was due to her client falling asleep at the wheel. “He accepts that there was a part of the road he could not remember and that he momentarily fell asleep,” she told the court.
The poison was being transported as part of a program to kill rats on New Zealand’s sub-Antartic Campbell Island, 620 kilometers (388 miles) southeast of South Island, where up to 100,000 rats had bred unchecked, wreaking havoc in local seabird breeding grounds.
Phoenix Freight, which employed McIntosh, pleaded guilty to two breaches of environment law and was fined 10,000 New Zealand dollars (US$4,800).
