Worker got hurt after nylon hoisting strap holding a lateral assembly beam to a crane broke, causing the beam to swing and fall
Ontario employer Innovative Metal Works Inc. was fined $68,000 after one of its workers suffered critical injuries in the workplace.
Following a guilty plea in the Provincial Offences Court in Newmarket, 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 on Feb. 27, 2023, when the employer was contracted to erect the steel for a new three-storey addition on a hotel construction project.
On the day of the incident, the company had three workers erecting the steel for the new addition. One worker was at ground level rigging loads to a crane to be hoisted and the other workers were on the third level with two scissor lifts used to install and connect the beams once hoisted.
The ground-level worker connected one end of a nylon hoisting strap to the centre of a lateral assembly beam with a choke hitch and attached the other end of the nylon hoisting strap to the crane hook block. The crane then lifted the beam to be placed and connected.
The lateral assembly beam – still being moved by the crane – was near its final position and ready to be bolted into place when the nylon hoisting strap holding it to the crane broke. That caused the beam to swing and fall, critically injuring the ground-level worker.
A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation found that the nylon hoisting strap used to hoist the lateral assembly beam was cut when it came into contact with the sharp capping plate on the assembly. There was no evidence of edge protection being used to preserve the integrity of the nylon hoisting strap as it contacted sharp edges on the assembly, according to the Ontario government.
“By not ensuring to take steps to protect the nylon hoisting strap from being cut, Innovative Metal Works Inc. failed, as an employer, to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed by section 172(3) of the Regulation for Construction Projects were carried out at the workplace, contrary section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act,” said the provincial government.
