Excerpt from the government of Ontario’s ‘Newsroom’
A $300,000 fine was levied against Essar Steel Algoma Inc., In mid-October, following the death of a worker two years ago. The penalty was ordered in the wake of a fatality at the company’s steel mill on October 30, 2008. A guilty plea was entered regarding the company’s failure to ensure that appropriate overhead guarding was in place to prevent falling material from harming a worker, notes the MOL in Toronto.
Two injuries, including a foot amputation, struck a Truro, Nova Scotia sawmill on August 4, 2010.
The first incident at the JD Irving, Ltd.-owned Truro Sawmill occurred just before 8 a.m. while a 46-year-old employee was adjusting a barrier on a moving conveyor, reports Kevin Finch, a spokesman for the Dept. Of Labour and Workforce Development in Halifax which is investigating the two accidents. The wrench that he was using slipped, and that pinched his left middle finger between the tool and the moving belt. The result was that he had a pinch injury to the finger, which moved the flesh just below the nail, Finch adds. The worker was taken to the hospital for the non-critical injury. The Labour Department ordered the conveyor be locked out until inspectors could determine that an adequate lockout procedure is in place.
Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL) has filed three safety charges against the village of Point Edward, Ontario, and four charges each against two supervisors after the death of a volunteer firefighter during a training exercise in January, 2010. Gary Kendall, a 51-year-old veteran volunteer firefighter with Point Edward Fire & Rescue, died on the morning of January 30, 2010, when he became trapped under a large ice floe during an ice-water rescue training exercise.
Excerpt from the Government of Ontario’s ‘Newsroom’
Ford Motor Company of Canada has been fined $850,000 for violations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act after two workers were killed in separate incidents.
On Jan. 31, 2008, a worker was fatally injured at Ford’s Oakville, Ont., assembly plant after being crushed between two forklifts. The worker was standing beside a forklift when a co-worker reversed another forklift into the worker. A Ministry of Labour investigation found that the forklift operator did not keep a clear view of the vehicle’s path of travel while reversing.