Nanaimo Forest Products has been fined $284,196 by WorkSafe B.C. for an accident that led to the death of an employee-owner.
Chris Fletcher, 37, of Nanaimo lost his life after the wood pile he had been standing on collapsed. The accident occurred March 25, 2016 at the Harmac Pacific bleached softwood pulp mill near Nanaimo. He had been on the chip pile in the reclaim area when a hole formed in the reclaim pit, WorkSafe B.C. said. The reclaim is a large pit in which piles of wood chips were being stored in advance of processing.
“The worker fell through the hole into a reclaim hopper and was carried through a conveyor system into a chip bin.”
WorkSafe’s investigation found the company had not carried out a risk assessment or developed safe work procedures for reclaim pits. “The edges of the reclaim pits were not guarded and were not marked to indicate a potential hazard, and workers were regularly required to stand at the edges of the pits as part of their work practices.
“In addition, the conveyors operated automatically with no method of alerting workers, and the hopper had no means of escape when the worker fell in and was covered by wood chips.”
Harmac’s failure to make sure machinery and equipment were effectively safeguarded to protect workers was a “high-risk” violation, WorkSafe said.
The company failed to provide adequate written safe work procedures to prevent injuries. It also failed to provide workers with the information, instruction, and training necessary to ensure their health and safety, WorkSafe said.
