Hopper gate not secured
KITCHENER — An Ontario aggregates company, Tri City Materials Ltd., has been fined following an incident two years ago in which a worker was injured when the chute gate of a hopper came down on his leg.
The company received a $60,000 fine in early July for failing to acquaint a worker with the hazards associated with cleaning out a trailer that acted as a hopper for various materials, notes a statement from Ontario’s Ministry of Labour (MOL) in Toronto.
While clearing out the trailer on December 30, 2008, the MOL reports that the truck attached to the trailer had been kept running because the hopper’s chute needed a source of power to remain open.
Another worker turned off the truck, causing the hopper chute gate to immediately fall, catching the worker’s leg.
A provincial investigation determined that the company’s cleaning procedure required that the trailer be locked out and its chute gate manually wedged open. The worker, however, had not been made familiar with the procedure or the associated hazards.
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