Town Fined $50,000 for Young Worker’s Injury in Tractor Incident

Three workers employed for the summer by a town’s public works department were installing drainage culverts and adding gravel to a hiking trail. One of the young workers was carrying a load of gravel on a tractor with a front-end loader attachment. While driving down an incline, he lost control of the tractor and its load. The tractor rolled over and pinned his leg, resulting in multiple fractures. An MOL investigation found that the worker lost control of the tractor because of the weight being carried by the raised bucket and the incline on which it was travelling. The town pleaded guilty to failing to provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker on the safe lifting capacity for the tractor and was fined $50,000 [Town of Bracebridge, Govt. News Release, Nov. 26, 2013].