WINDSOR, ONT. — A Windsor, Ont.-based wind power firm has been convicted and fined for its role in a workplace incident in which a worker was permanently injured.
The incident occurred in October 2017 at CS Wind Canada’s facility on Anchor Drive in Windsor. The company is currently in a state of shutdown, notes a Ministry of Labour statement.
The ministry recounts that a worker had signed on to participate in a special project at the workplace as part of the facility’s shutdown process. The task consisted of disassembling flanges for the purpose of disposal as scrap metal. Flanges are wind tower sections formed of large metal rings.
On Oct. 30, 2017, the worker arrived at the workplace to work on the task. To do so, the worker placed one side of each flange on a stand and used an acetylene gas torch to make cuts at the raised area.
The worker began to work on a flange and made two cuts. On the third cut, the worker initially stood on the outside perimeter of the flange and subsequently stepped to the inside perimeter to continue. As the cut was completed, the flange piece turned inward and fell on the worker, causing severe injury.
The ministry investigation determined that CS Wind had not provided workers with information or instruction on safe procedures for cutting wind tower sections, in violation of section 25(2)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA).
CS Wind was previously convicted under the OHSA in Windsor on Aug. 18, 2016 for failing to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker. In that incident, a worker suffered multiple injuries from the movement of components of a wind tower under construction. The company was fined $60,000 for that offence.
Following a guilty plea, CS Wind was fined $60,000 by Justice of the Peace Susan Hoffman in a Windsor court for this latest offence. The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act.
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