Worker got pinned between rail car, front-end loader
Ontario employer Pipe & Piling Supplies (Central) Limited has been fined $50,000 after one of its workers suffered critical injuries in the workplace.
After pleading guilty in the Ontario Court of Justice, the employer must also pay a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act, to be credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
The incident happened on April 8, 2021. A worker was using the forks of a front-end loader to move an empty rail car along railway tracks.
Once at the desired location, the worker jumped onto the rail car to access the hand brakes. However, the rail car rolled backward.
The worker became pinned between the rail car and the front-end loader, sustaining critical injuries.
“Pipe & Piling Supplies Limited failed, as an employer, to ensure that the unattended flatbed railcar was immobilized and secured against accidental movement, as prescribed in s. 57 of Ontario Regulation 851, contrary to s. 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act,” according to the Ontario government.
Here are some things employers can remind their workers of when they are using forklifts around railways and loading rail cars, according to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS):
- Cross railway tracks on a diagonal at designated locations only.
- Make sure that handbrakes, wheel blocks and derailer are set before entering a railcar.
- Do not park a forklift within three meters of railway tracks or inside railcars.
- Do not tow or push railcars or trucks with a forklift.
- Do not open railway car doors with forklift forks.
