$450,000 in Penalties Imposed on Two Companies for Worker’s Fatal Crushing

A floor hand was fatally injured when he was crushed between the forks of an excavator and a stationary post on a portable flare tank. A drilling company pleaded guilty to violating Sec. 258(3)(a) of the OHS Code. The court fined it $5,000 and ordered it to pay a creative sentence of $295,000 to the Alberta Construction Safety Association for the creation of a one-day course for working around powered mobile equipment, an online module and a best practices document. Another company pleaded guilty to violating Sec. 2(1)(a)(ii) of the Code and was fined $150,000 [Ensign Drilling Inc. and Daylo Services Inc., Govt. News Release, Nov. 26, 2015].