Toronto area lumber company fined $75k after worker injured unloading beams
By The Canadian Press
VAUGHAN, Ont. – A Toronto-area lumber company has been fined $75,000 after a worker was critically injured while unloading large beams from a delivery truck more than three years ago.
The Ministry of Labour says Argo Lumber Inc. pleaded guilty this week to one charge under the Occupational Health and Safety Act – failing to provide information, instruction and supervision to protect the health and safety of a worker.
It says the charge stemmed from an incident that took place in September 2015 at a home in Vaughan, Ont.
The ministry says the worker was delivering lumber that was loaded in a truck with a 5.5-metre bed, which included two 8.5-metre beams of lumber placed at an angle on top of the other pieces. It says the two beams alone weighed about 111 kilograms.
It says that on arrival, the worker climbed on the truck bed, removed the strapping keeping the beams in place and tried to push them off the side of the truck.
The ministry says the worker lost balance and fell off the truck onto the driveway, a roughly 2.2-metre fall. The two beams also fell.
An investigation by the ministry found the worker had received some training on how to deliver lumber to homes, but had not received adequate information on how to safely unload beams longer than 6.7 metres.
As a result, it says the worker tried to do so by hand, which is unsafe.
