A tree felled by a forestry company in New Zealand later rolls down a hill, onto a main road and just misses killing a couple in a car.

This is Nelson Forest’s abominable management-speak response:

“We work diligently with all of our contractors to ensure safe production and we are very aware of the critical need to protect members of the public during a roadside operation.

“We are united in our view that we must take this opportunity to learn and use it to strengthen the management of safety in our business.”

“We are building a system of control measures made up of physical structures as well as decisions about what you do and don’t do,” Mr Robinson said.

He said Nelson Forests’ control measures were like slices of swiss cheese, with each level of precaution containing holes.

“Every now and then those holes line up,” he said.

“Decisions could have been made better, and structures could have worked when they were supposed to work.

“We rely on a lot of people and a lot of systems and we are trying to make it work.”