Rowe's fined $40,000 for injury
Worker injured in 2013 incident didn't have training to work with ice auger
Andrew Livingstone
Northern News Services
Thursday, April 23, 2015
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Rowe's Construction Ltd. has been slapped with a $40,000 fine after the company pleaded guilty to violating territorial safety regulations in a 2013 incident that left a worker seriously injured.
Representatives from the Fort Simpson-based company pleaded guilty in territorial court on April 1 to violating Section 9 of the territorial General Safety Regulations. The charge was related to a February 2013 incident where a worker was seriously injured during the construction of an ice road near Trout Lake.
The worker, who was hired through a sub-contracting agreement with another company, was injured by an ice auger while working on the road. The contracted worker had no safety training to operate the equipment and wasn't trained on specific safety procedures to follow when working around an ice auger.
The company was hired by the Department of Transportation to deliver crushed rock to the new airport site in Trout Lake and was constructing an ice road between the rock supply point and the community. The injured employee, primarily employed by the Sambaa K'e Development Corporation, was working with an experienced ice auger operator to help drill holes in the ice road in order to properly flood the surface.
The operator had previous experience using this type of machinery prior to being employed on the project, and was given two days of training by an on-site project supervisor.
However, no one on the project provided the injured employee with training, according to court records. The employee worked with the ice auger for nearly two weeks without training, guiding the auger by hand into previously drilled holes to reopen them after they had frozen over, an unsafe procedure, according to the agreed statement of facts filed in the Yellowknife courthouse.
"There were no written instructions or guidelines provided to workers ... with respect to the safe operation of the ice augers they were using on a daily basis," the documents show.
On the day of the incident, the two employees began the day by re-drilling holes in the road that had frozen over the previous night. After a conversation with the site supervisor, the general labourer put his hand on the ice auger at the moment the operator began to drill.
The injured employee's arm got caught in the auger due to his cotton gloves freezing to it in the cold temperatures and his loose-fitting jacket becoming caught in the auger chain.
It took two rotations of the ice auger to get his arm out of the machine. His humerus, radius and ulna - the major bones of the upper and forearm - were fractured, and three of his fingers were dislocated as a result of the accident. He was medevaced to Edmonton where doctors performed surgery on his arm and fingers, requiring metal plates and screws.
Kim Walker, spokesperson for the Worker's Safety and Compensation Commission said in an e-mail that employers in the territory need to be mindful of their duties under government regulations. Employers have a responsibility to their workers to provide adequate training, equipment that is in safe working condition, and train workers on any potential hazards like how to handle emergencies.
"When it comes to workplace safety, employers have certain responsibilities to their workers," said Walker. "Properly training your workers is the right thing to do. Financially it reduces the potential for costly losses in time and productivity and it is the law."
