Detectives were investigating how a minor collision between a forklift and truck at Crawfords Freightlines in the suburb of Sandgate escalated into punches being thrown.

The truck driver, 44, was charged on Tuesday night with the manslaughter of the 45-year-old forklift driver.

An autopsy will be carried out to determine if the man collapsed after suffering some blows and died at the scene.

Detectives do not believed the alleged victim fell and hit his head.

Emergency services were called to the industrial site on Old Maitland Road at Sandgate just before 3pm where they found a man unconscious.

The man died at the scene.

The truck driver was arrested at the scene and taken to Waratah police station where he was later charged with manslaughter.

The company's managing director, Peter Crawford, confirmed the incident to the Newcastle Herald on Tuesday night.

He declined to say whether either person involved was an employee of the company.

"It's an incident that shouldn't have happened, but it did," Mr Crawford said.

"It's very hard to get your head around."

*/ ]]>

Mr Crawford was concerned about the repercussions for his company and its workforce, given a run of bad publicity in recent years.

In 2013, the Herald reported concerns about the amount of ammonium nitrate that Crawfords was storing at its Sandgate site after a state government audit in the wake of the Orica controversy.

In 2014, the Herald reported Environment Protection Authority concerns over its use of methyl bromide to fumigate timber.

Last month, a contractor died in a workplace accident at the site.

Police said the man was conducting maintenance on a forklift  when there was a failure in the tyre.

Newcastle Herald