Contractor and Agriculture Branch Fined for Fatal Wild Horse Incident

A contractor, who’d been hired to capture wild horses by the Agriculture Branch of Energy Mines and Resources, built a Russell fence corral and baited the horses into it. While workers were connecting metal panels to the Russell fence, the horses bolted. One horse got tangled in a panel and knocked a worker to the ground. The horse rolled over him, causing a fatal head injury. After an investigation, the Agriculture Branch was fined $5,000 for failing to establish a complete OHS program. The contractor was fined $750 for failing to properly assess the risks associated with the job and not providing appropriate PPE [Yukon Agriculture Branch and Dan Sabo, Govt. News Release, Jan. 26, 2015].