MILTON, ONT.—M-B Oakville Autohaus, also known as 1747808 Ontario Limited, was fined $65,000 and pleaded guilty in relation to an incident where an employee of an electrical company was seriously injured after falling almost 22 feet.
On Feb. 4, 2014, the worker, who was an employee of Andrea Electrical Service Ltd., was working as a general labourer with another worker who was an electrical apprentice at the defendant’s Mercedes Benz car dealership at 191 Wyecroft Rd. in Oakville.
They were contracted to look into the source of an electrical short problem in a rooftop heating unit; it was their second day at the worksite, the Ministry of Labour (MOL) reports.
The wires leading to the heating unit were too small so the two workers were attempting to run electrical wires through a conduit located at ceiling height. According to the MOL, both workers were using a skyjack supplied by the defendant in an area known as the sprinter bay.
The electrical apprentice attempted to leave through the sprinter bay door to unravel new wires. When the apprentice hit the button to open the sprinter bay door, the breaker switch for the door was left in the "on" position and therefore had power, the MOL states.
The door then opened by moving on its overhead rails and struck the skyjack with the young worker on it. The skyjack was knocked over by the sprinter bay door and the young worker fell, suffering serious injuries.
The MOL notes neither the defendant nor the workers themselves had locked and tagged out the electrical installation while work was being performed in the sprinter bay area. The defendant had also not alerted the workers to the hazard created when the door was opened.
An operations manager for the defendant told an MOL inspector that when their workers used the skyjack, they would disable the door if working near the door. The defendant’s maintenance worker would always lock and tag out the door when using the skyjack so no one could open the door.
Court was told that the electrical services company had previously done work on the site, the MOL explains.
However, the defendant failed to acquaint the workers from Andrea Electrical Services Ltd. with the hazard of the overhead door opening when using a skyjack in the sprinter bay, which is contrary to Section 25(2)(d) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The company also failed as an employer to acquaint a worker or a person in authority over a worker with any hazard in the work, the MOL says.
As a result of this incident, Andrea Electrical Services Ltd. pleaded guilty and was fined $25,000 on June 22, 2015 before Justice of the Peace Kenneth Dechert for failing to ensure equipment that could endanger a worker had been locked out.
M-B Oakville Autohaus was fined $65,000 for the safety violation by Justice of the Peace Donald Dudar in a Milton provincial court on May 24, 2016.
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