Employer Convicted in Conveyor Collapse & Fined $110,000

A company was working at a plant that was being decommissioned. To get access to a piece of equipment, sections of an overhead conveyor had to be removed. Workers cut and separated a section of the conveyor and began removing the anchoring bolts on the base. As the last bolt was loosened, the conveyor section toppled over, hitting a worker and breaking vertebrae in his back and a bone in one leg. An MOL inspection found that blocking hadn’t been installed to prevent the collapse or movement of the conveyor section being dismantled. The employer was found guilty at trial of failing to prevent the collapse or movement of part or all of a piece of equipment that’s being dismantled, altered or repaired if its collapse or movement may endanger a worker. The court fined it $110,000 [Process Group Inc., Govt. News Release, Dec. 4, 2013].