Worker’s Death Results in $100,000 Fine for Campbellford Company
The Voice of Canada News
Convicted: Mintech Marketing Inc., 64 Tanner Industrial Park, Campbellford, Ontario, a company that collects and resells post-production plastic and other waste products.
Location: The company’s facility at 64 Tanner Industrial Park in Campbellford.
Description of Offence: A young worker died after a transport trailer fell while the worker was using a propane torch to melt and clear frozen ground around the trailer.
Date of Offence: January 16, 2017.
Date of Conviction: July 18, 2018.
Penalty Imposed:
Following a guilty plea, the company was fined $100,000 by Justice of the Peace Jack Le Blanc in Cobourg court; Crown Counsel David McCaskill.
The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
Background:
On January 16, 2017, a young worker was using a propane torch to melt and clear frozen ground around the landing gear legs of a transport trailer, whose landing gear was stuck in the frozen ground. Landing gear legs support the trailer when it is not attached to a tractor unit. In this case, it was intended that the trailer be moved but it could not be moved because the legs were stuck in ice.
After commencing the work, the worker was left alone to complete the task.
At some point during the work the worker moved from the driver side to the passenger side leg of the landing gear. This placed the worker in a relatively narrow area between the trailer being worked on and another full trailer.
The trailer the worker was working on fell forward and toward the passenger side where the worker was located. The trailer fell when the legs which had been supported by the ice collapsed upon being released from the ice.
The worker was fatally injured as a result of being pinned between the two trailers.
The trailer in question was not placed or stored so that it would not tip, collapse or fall, resulting in the accident. This is an offence under section 45(b)(i) of the Industrial Establishments Regulation (Regulation 851) and section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
New and young workers in Ontario are more likely to be injured during the first few months on the job than other workers, and are three times more likely to be injured during their first month on the job than at any other time.
