CAMBRIDGE — Cambridge, Ont.-based Waynco Limited, an aggregates company, has been found guilty and fined for its responsibility in the death of a worker struck by rock-crushing equipment.
The incident occurred Dec. 8, 2017 at the Waynco pit in Cambridge, recounts a Ministry of Labour brief. A worker was using a Pioneer crusher to break down pieces of aggregate while another worker operated a loader.
The crusher received aggregate from the loader in a large steel frame called a grizzly deck.
Occasionally, aggregate material has to be removed manually from the grizzly deck to prevent the machine from jamming.
As the loader approached the grizzly deck, the worker operating the loader saw that it was not closed, preventing access by the loader.
Upon investigating the delay, the loader operator found the body of the crusher operator under the grizzly deck.
A ministry investigation determined that the crusher had an unguarded pinch point.
The investigation also found that the lowering lever for the grizzly deck was not functioning properly and would stick in the lowered position. A prop bar, used to hold the grizzly deck up during cleaning operations, was not in place and the machine had not been de-energized.
A justice of the peace in Cambridge provincial court recently found that Waynco failed as an employer to ensure that before any work was done on a machine that it was stopped, all hydraulic, pneumatic or gravity stored energy was dissipated or contained, and that energy isolating devices were engaged, locked and tagged. This was contrary to section 185(7) of Ontario Regulation 854/90.
Waynco was convicted on June 10 and fined $110,000.
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