Worker fatally injured while troubleshooting stamping press
Ontario employer Saturn Tool & Die (Windsor) Inc. – which designs and builds stamping dies for the automotive industry – has been fined $180,000 following a fatal injury to one worker.
Following a guilty plea in the Provincial Offences Court in Windsor, the employer was also tasked to pay a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
The incident happened at the company’s facility at 5175 Hennin Drive, Oldcastle, Ont. on March 28, 2022.
On that day, a maintenance worker was called to troubleshoot a quality control problem with an Eagle 2,750-ton stamping press.
The worker entered the press through its light curtain, which caused the press to stop operating. However, the worker did not lock out the machine by putting its ram blocks into place and plugging in the electronic lock out plugs.
Unaware that the maintenance worker was inside, another returned to the press, reset the light curtains and cycled the press. The maintenance worker was fatally injured in the process.
A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation found that it was common practice at the time of the incident for workers on the production floor not to use ram blocks for troubleshooting or maintenance work of a short duration.
“Saturn Tool & Die (Windsor) Inc. failed, as an employer, to ensure that the motion of any part of the press that could endanger a worker was stopped and blocked during the troubleshooting examination, as required by section 75 of Ontario Regulation 851, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act,” said the Ontario government.
