Swift Current sewer company fined after two men died in September 2014 workplace accident near Fox Valley
@MedicineHatNews
By Canadian Press on September 28, 2016.
FOX VALLEY, Sask. – A Saskatchewan sewer company will have to pay a $42,000 penalty after two Calgary men were killed in a workplace accident.
J & D Sewer Services Ltd. of Swift Current was fined Tuesday for the accident in September 2014.
Two workers died when they were exposed to hydrogen sulphide in a sewer line near the village of Fox Valley, about 100 kilometres east of Medicine Hat.
RCMP said at the time that the men fell about 3 1/2 metres and were buried when the line partially collapsed.
The company pleaded guilty in July to two counts under occupational health-and-safety legislation.
It admitted that it failed to ensure the workers were trained in all necessary ways to protect their health and safety and did not take all steps to prevent them from being exposed to hazardous substances.
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Just over two years after two workers died from being exposed to hydrogen sulfide in a sewer line, Swift Current company, J & D Sewer Services (1984) Limited has been fined $42,000.
The fines were issued Tuesday after the company pleaded guilty in July to:
-Contravening clause 19(1)(a) of the regulations (being an employer, failure to ensure that a worker is trained in all matters that are necessary to protect the health and safety of the worker when the worker begins work at a place of employment, resulting in the death of two workers); and
-Contravening clause 302(2)(a) of the regulations (being an employer, failed to take all practicable steps to prevent exposure of a worker, to an extent that is likely harmful to a worker, to a chemical substance or biological substance that may be hazardous, resulting in the death of two workers).
The company was fined $15,000 plus a $6,000 surcharge on each count.
Charges stem from an incident that took place near the Village of Fox Valley on September 14, 2014.
At the time of the incident, RCMP said that the men fell about 3 1/2 meters and were buried when the line partially collapsed.