A Montreal company has been fined $65,000 for its role in a 2021 incident that led to a worker’s injuries.

American Iron & Metal Company Inc., which recycles scrap metal, entered a guilty plea in a Hamilton courtroom. It will also pay a 25 percent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act.

The incident occurred in December 2021 at a scrap metal yard at Steel City Court in Hamilton. One of the company’s drivers was transferring loads of scrap metal to a shredding pile at the company’s scrap metal yard using a 40-foot dump trailer.

The driver was unloading the dump trailer from behind. After opening one of the rear doors, the driver opened the other rear door part way. The driver then moved to the inside of the door to open it the rest of the way. While the driver was inside the door, part of the load began to fall from the trailer, injuring the driver.

The driver had been employed by the company since 2020, but had only recently started driving and unloading the dump trailer and was still being trained on the company’s procedures for its use.

The company’s procedure for opening and unloading trailer rear doors is for the driver to stand outside the trailer door and use it to shield themselves from scrap metal that may fall when the door is opened. Information, instruction and supervision on this procedure had not yet been provided to the worker at the time of the incident.

American Iron & Metal Company Inc. was found to have violated Section 25(2)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act by failing to provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker on the safe procedure for unloading the 40-foot dump trailer.