Authorities knew for years that some trucks had a handbrake so sensitive it could be dislodged simply by shutting the cab door - in fact, since just after a man was crushed to death in 2010.
Eighteen months after a Wellington roadworker was ploughed down from behind by a runaway truck in Ngauranga Gorge, the highway contractor was still petitioning the regulator to do more.
A truck driver closing his cab door was probably all it took to dislodge a dodgy handbrake, sending the vehicle down Ngauranga Gorge and fatally striking a road worker.