Buggy crash prisoner’s care was ‘insufficient’, Coroner rules

Corrections provided an ‘insufficient’ level of care to Holtze inmate Benny Watts who died in an ATV crash while not wearing a helmet or seatbelt last year, a coroner has ruled.

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CORRECTIONS provided an “insufficient” level of care to Holtze inmate Benny Watts who died in an ATV crash while not wearing a helmet or seatbelt last year, a coroner has ruled.

Territory Coroner Greg Cavanagh found despite clear warnings in the Polaris ATV’s owner’s manual that seatbelts and helmets should be worn, that procedure was not followed and there were no helmets available.

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Mr Cavanagh found that “if Benny had been wearing a seatbelt and a helmet he may not have died” while working on the prison grounds that day.

“But the fundamental issue is that the Polaris was a fast and potentially dangerous vehicle, as was pointed out by the manufacturer,” he said.

“It was a hazard that the prison authorities had introduced to the workplace without addressing the risks.”

Mr Cavanagh ruled an appropriate risk assessment was not conducted by prison authorities and the jail was a “workplace that should have been safer”.

The ATV Benny Watts was driving shortly before his death at Holtze Prison last year. Picture: NT Courts

“In my view, the treatment and supervision of Benjamin Watts while in custody should not be criticised but given the dangers allowed to remain in the prison workplace, the level of care provided was insufficient,” he said.

Mr Cavanagh said a comprehensive and objective review of the circumstances of Benny’s death “provides significant encouragement” but noted “many” of its recommendations remained unimplemented.

“It was said that implementation was subject to approval of the necessary resources (and) that Corrections was still awaiting a decision on whether those resources would be funded,” he said.

“In my opinion the implementation of those recommendations should be a priority.”

Mr Watts rose to prominence when he featured on the front page of the NT News in 2008 after foiling a plot to blow up a service station by tackling the offender and performing a citizens arrest.

Another prisoner Damien Barbi tried to save his life on the day of the crash by performing CPR and Mr Cavanagh described his actions as “nothing short of heroic”.

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