Worker critically injured after being struck by a falling sole plate
Quebec employer Andritz Hydro Canada has been fined $80,000 after one of its workers was injured in the workplace.
Following a guilty plea in the Provincial Offences Court in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., 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 March 16, 2023, when the company was a constructor and employer for a project to rehabilitate the hydroelectric generators at Red Rock Falls Generating Station located in Iron Bridge, Ontario.
On the day of the incident, two millwrights were correcting an installation performed earlier, of three metal sole plates to the underside of a stator frame. The three metal keys that had been used to align and position these metal sole plates had been inserted incorrectly and needed to be removed and put back into place.
To align and position metal sole plates, workers insert a metal key between the top of the sole plate and the bottom of the stator frame.
On the first sole plate one of the millwrights, under the direction of the other, began loosening the bolts that held the sole plate to the stator frame.
When the bolts were fully removed, the support jack was released and the sole plate tipped inwards and fell out of its pocket. One of the millwrights was critically injured as a result.
A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation found that “Andritz Hydro Canada failed to ensure that the sole plate was adequately braced to prevent any movement that may affect its stability or cause its failure or collapse, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.” said the Ontario government.
