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Issue link: https://digital.thesafetymag.com/i/1215684
U P F R O N T F I N E S A N D P E N A L T I E S 8 www.thesafetymag.com/ca CUSTOMER STRUCK BY FALLING LOAD, LOBLAWS FINED $100,000 LOBLAWS, which operates more than 1,000 grocery stores across Canada, has been fined a total of $100,000 by the Ontario Ministry of Labour for an injury sustained by a customer. The company was fined $80,000 for the incident, plus the required 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge of $20,000. On April 3, 2018, a customer walking to the entrance of a Real Canadian Superstore in London, Ont. was injured by products that fell from a moving forklift driven by a Loblaws worker. This incident was captured on video footage. The worker was moving product from near the garden centre located in the parking lot to put on display outside of the main entrance to the store. The worker/forklift operator was required to travel on the company's property along the driveway between the parking lot and the store. The product being moved consisted of 90 bags of topsoil weighing 25 litres each. The bags were stacked on a single pallet and were just over four feet in height, four feet long and 40 inches wide. The customer was walking from the parking lot diagonally across the driveway toward the main entrance. The forklift operator was facing and driving forward toward the main entrance with the pallet raised about 10 to 12 inches from the ground. The operator stopped abruptly after spotting the customer. The load slid off the pallet, striking and injuring the customer. Customers and workers who arrive at or depart from the store were in an area where they could have been endangered by the movement of this forklift, the Ministry of Labour said. The ministry investigated and concluded that the forklift was in proper working condition and excessive speed was not an issue. The raised load did not obstruct the operator's view, but the forklift's left and right mast were visual obstructions while the forklift was being operated in a forward direction. Loblaws had a policy that required an operator whose view was blocked by a load to operate the forklift in reverse. The worker was completing this task without assistance. No barriers or warning signs were in place along the driveway to protect workers or customers from the movement of the forklift. Although there was a pedestrian crosswalk painted on the driveway, insufficient safeguards were identified or implemented by Loblaws to ensure the protection of workers (or customers) while a forklift was being operated on the driveway during store hours, the Ministry of Labour said. Section 20 of the Ontario Industrial Establishments Regulation requires barriers, warning signs or other safeguards for the protection of all workers in an area where vehicle or pedestrian traffic may endanger the safety of any worker. The ministry determined Loblaws violated section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Actress falls through glass door, company fined $40,000 The Government of Manitoba has fined Winnipeg-based Incident Productions $40,000. On Dec. 15, 2016, a young film actress was working on the set of Incident in a Ghostland. The production crew was filming a scene that called for the actress to approach a glass panel door and fall to her knees while pounding on the glass with both hands. When the actress struck the door, the glass shattered and she fell through the broken glass, resulting in serious lacerations to her face and neck. Incident Productions pleaded guilty to failing to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the safety, health and welfare of a worker. "Employers should err on the side of caution by providing barriers, signs or safeguards even if machinery is operating properly and neither speed nor obstructed view are at issue." Nahla Khouri, Miller Thomson Fatality in Sask. results in $560,000 fine for Manitoba company Winnipeg company Langenburg Redi-Mix has been fined $560,000 for a workplace fatality at a site near Eyebrow, Sask. On Feb. 13, 2017, a worker was fatally injured when a wheel loader rolled backwards, pinning the worker between the loader and another vehicle. Langenburg Redi-Mix was found guilty of failing to ensure, insofar as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of all of the employer's workers, resulting in the death of a worker, and that all work at a place of employment was sufficiently and competently supervised, resulting in the death of a worker. Petronas Energy fined $161K for tank explosion Petronas Energy Canada has been fined $161,312 by WorkSafeBC. Workers were pressure washing and vacuuming hydrocarbon-based waste fluids from a large storage tank in Pink Mountain, B.C. when an explosion occurred. The tank's roof was torn off and two of the workers were thrown from the tank's opening, sustaining serious injuries. WorkSafeBC identified deficiencies related to de-energization, confined spaces, hazard assessment and overall health and safety management. As prime contractor, the firm failed to co-ordinate health and safety activities — a repeated violation at another of the firm's locations — and failed to ensure the health and safety of all workers at its work site.