A local mining company is facing fines following a major incident.
On March 20th a worker at Goldcorp’s Hollinger Pit was dragged behind a truck while attached to some safety equipment tethered to the vehicle.
The courts say an Orica worker was asked to tape some holes at the pit, which involves measuring the length of drill holes and reporting by radio to another worker to record. It says the worker was attached to a supervisor’s truck as an anchor while he went down the pit to take some measurements. Courts say on the day of the incident, a Goldcorp worker was acting as spotter, and it was this person’s truck being used as the fall protection anchor. Around 11:00am that worker left the area with the truck in order to take other workers to go for lunch.
An Orica supervisor arrived at the pit as the spotter left the area, parking his truck and called another supervisor. The worker doing the taping and measuring told the supervisor there were further holes to tape, and wanted to be tied off to this vehicle. The supervisor on the other end of the call heard the truck owner and supervisor give permission to do so and also heard a suggestion that the worker could take a break.
It says the co-worker recording the measurements arrived shortly after and pulled his truck parallel to the supervisor’s. The co-worker was aware that the fall arrest equipment was clipped to the supervisor’s truck, spoke briefly with the worker performing the measuring, and clipped the fall arrest equipment to his co-worker’s harness.
The Ontario Courts say there was no spotter and the worker have the keys to the supervisor’s truck. It adds that few minutes later, the supervisor finished the conversation with the other supervisor, put his vehicle in gear, and drove away. The worker who was still tethered to the truck was pulled out of the pit and dragged behind the truck until becoming wedged under the second truck.
Orica is pleading guilty to failing as an employer to provide information, instruction and supervision to protect a worker’s safety. The company is being fined $65,000 and a 25 per cent victim surcharge.
