TORONTO — Liqui-Force Services Inc. has been fined $50,000 after a worker employed by the company received life-threatening injuries when a cable that was unwinding was caught by a vehicle and he was pulled into traffic.
The company, located in Kingsville, Ont., operates a pipeline rehabilitation service and offers pipeline system inspection, assessment, rehabilitation and maintenance.
Liqui-Force was contracted by Henry Heyink Construction Ltd. to perform relining work on existing municipal sewer piping in place under O’Neil Street, a residential street in Chatham, Ont.
On Feb. 28, 2017, the injured worker was unravelling the cable from one winch located at one access cover (manhole) and pulling the cable toward another access cover down the street. Other workers indicated they regularly set up two separate work areas.
In this instance both work areas, which included a work truck close to an access cover, were surrounded by orange cones that caused traffic to drive around the area.
However, the distance between the two areas was several hundred feet and required the worker to pull the cable out from the winch the entire distance, states a release issued by the Ministry of Labour (MOL).
There was no protection from passing traffic while the worker was between the two areas, and the street was open to public traffic.
According to the MOL report, the worker was walking and unspooling the cable. As a result it formed a loop on the roadway which was snagged by a vehicle travelling north between the two project areas.
The worker was holding one end of the cable and was flung backwards onto the road by the moving vehicle becoming attached to the cable. He was critically injured.
Liqui-force failed to comply with section 67(5) of Ontario Regulation 213/91 (the Construction Regulation) as required by an employer contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
This section of the regulation states there must be a written traffic protection plan in place that informs workers about vehicular traffic hazards and the measures that will be used to protect them.
The conviction was handed down Feb. 27, 2018 by Justice of the Peace Elizabeth Neilson following a guilty plea in a Chatham court.
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