Brantford workplace fatality leads to $125K fine for Vancouver company
A Vancouver-based company has been fined $125,000 for its role in an incident in Brantford that led to a workplace fatality.
CRM of Canada Processing entered a guilty plea in provincial offences court in Brantford. The court also imposed a 25-percent 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.
The incident occurred on March 3, 2021 at CRM’s rubber recycling facility on Garden Avenue.
The employer breaks up used tires into small crumb pellets that can be more easily recycled into new product. During the recycling process, a fibrous material is released as a by-product. That product is collected and compacted into an industrial container and is trucked off the premises by a third-party trucking company.
These containers are designed with clamping devices on each side to secure the container to the compactor. This is needed as the container becomes a compaction vessel for the movement and the forces generated by the ram. The compactor involved had a capacity of 40 tonnes force.
A limit switch interlocked with the movement of the ram is located at the discharge end of the compactor. When correctly positioned and activated, this switch is in physical contact with the container and signals to the compacting ram that it can continue to pack the container because the container is in the correct and secured position. If the limit switch device is not activated or is not in contact with the container, the ram does not operate.
The compactor operator is responsible for securing the clamping devices and for ensuring the limit switch is activated and correctly positioned
On the day of the incident, a truck driver employed by the third-party trucking company arrived on site for a container that was in the final stages of being filled. The driver had regularly attended the CRM facility to deliver empty containers and remove filled containers. The driver backed his truck into position, entered the building and spoke briefly to the assistant compactor operator. He then left the building.
Ten minutes later, the assistant compactor operator found the worker unresponsive and trapped outside between the container and the wall.
There were no eyewitnesses to the incident, and it is not clear how the container became detached from the compactor.
Emergency services were summoned to retrieve the worker who suffered fatal injuries.
Upon investigation, it was determined the limit switch was not appropriately activated or positioned to be able to detect the position of the container.
It was also determined that the operators of the compactor were not informed or instructed on how to correctly position and activate this limit switch.
An investigation by the Ministry of Labour found that CRM had failed as an employer to provide information and instruction and to workers and therefore violated section 25(2)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.