Trenton Company Fined $55,000 After Worker Injured by Steel Struts
Ministry of Labour
Location: 163 North Murray Street, Trenton.
Description of Offence: A worker who was moving a bundle of steel using an overhead crane suffered permanent crushing injuries when an outer steel strut in the bundle moved inward.
Date of Offence: March 8, 2016.
Date of Conviction: November 22, 2017.
Penalty Imposed
- Fracan was fined $55,000 by Justice of the Peace Christopher I. Peltzer in Belleville court at 235 Pinnacle Street; Crown Counsel Jai Dhar.
- 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
- A worker was given the task of moving a bundle of steel using an overhead crane. The bundle consisted of 20 steel struts stacked in four rows with three-inch wooden spacers between each row. The bundled weighed about 2,600 pounds and was 20.5 feet long.
- The worker used a set of lifting chains attached to the overhead crane to move the bundle and was holding onto the bundle to keep it steady as it lifted.
- As the load was being raised, one of the outer steel struts in the bundle suddenly moved inward and pressed against the next steel strut.
- The worker suffered a crushing injury which resulted in a permanent injury.
- The investigation by the Ministry of Labour revealed that it was common for the steel struts to shift in this manner when being moved by overhead cranes.
- Section 45(a) of Ontario Regulation 851 (the Industrial Establishments Regulation) states that materials, articles or things required to be lifted, carried or moved, shall be lifted, carried or moved in a manner that does not endanger the safety of any worker.