The Port of Tauranga today hit back at claims that recently obtained Worksafe statistics show the port is the most accident prone in the country.

Accident details at New Zealand ports as released to the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union show the Port of Tauranga - New Zealand's busiest - has had 26 accidents since 2011, and two deaths.

The Port of Tauranga is New Zealand's busiest.

But Port of Tauranga Corporate Services manager Sara Lunam says only one of the reported incidents involved a Port of Tauranga employee.

The rest involved the employees or sub-contractors of other companies working within the port area.

'We haven't had serious harm incident to a Port of Tauranga employee for three years,” says Sara.

The Port of Tauranga looks a lot better in the statistics when the Worksafe numbers are overlayed with the cargo volumes handled by each of the country's 13 ports.

They have taken the import/export stats from Statistics NZ and the serious harm data that the union provided, and set up a ratio that shows the relative performance of ports regarding accidents.

'We've further refined it and it actually shows we are in fact probably better than the ports of Auckland because our performance has improved over the last two years,” adds Sara.

'I believe our performance is one of the best ports in New Zealand, apart from possibly Napier. We are not saying it's acceptable. We are saying we are working hard to improve it.”

In spite of the unions' accusations, the numbers show the accident rate in the ports is reducing, says Sara.

'It's very clear in the legislation and the new legislation that we do not have any legal obligations,” she adds. 'but that's not to say that we don't have a moral obligation and that we don't care and that we aren't working with people to fix it.

'It's not that we are shying away from it because we obviously have rules of engagement on the port.”

The port companies are in the same legal situation as the Auckland Airport Company says Sara. They have all the responsibility, but no control.

The Port of Tauranga's working of the Worksafe accident statistics, comparing them with cargo volumes, and year by year.

The port works with the other port employers and they do set standards, but any decision on whether a customer will hire a stevedore is the customer's decision, not the port company's.

Stevedoring company ISO employee Doug Hay, 59, died in Waikato hospital on August 22 following a 2.5m fall while loading pulp at the port on August 16.

On August 14 2011, Allied Workforce employee Walter Daniel Cosca, 49, while working on construction of a new road at Sulphur Point, was run over by a grader. He was contracted to Fulton Hogan Ltd.

And on October 10, 2012 a man had his foot cut off when the winch wire used to wind covers over stacks of logs for fumigation became entangled. Radio NZ is today reporting a person's hand also had to be amputated following an accident in June this year.

The information provided by Worksafe shows there are been seven deaths and 133 serious accidents across all 13 ports since 2011. There have been three deaths at the Port of Lyttelton in the past year, and 24 accidents since 2011.

Rail, Maritime and Transport Union secretary Wayne Butson says details of accidents shows that ports in New Zealand are an extremely dangerous place to work

The figures do not include deaths or serious accidents which happen on the water because they are reported to Maritime New Zealand, Radio NZ reports. The union estimates that there have been at least another three deaths on the water, bringing the total number to 10.

Mr Butson said the union was still waiting to get information from Maritime New Zealand and, until then, they have yet to see the full picture of accidents and deaths. He said there isn't full reporting, so the information they have was probably only the tip of the iceberg.