UPDATE: Hamilton’s Miska Trailer, fined $150K in worker death says it was ‘a tragic day’
A Hamilton trailer factory company has been fined $150,000 in the case of a young employee who died last year after being electrocuted when a flagpole he was handling came into contact with live power lines.
In a ruling handed down in the Ontario Court of Justice in Hamilton, Justice Anthony Leitch imposed that penalty after Miska Trailer Factory on Highway 6 North, having pleaded guilty, was convicted of an offence under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
According to the court record, the 19-year-old worker drove a forklift with a scissor lift on its forks to an area in the company parking lot on March 21, 2019. He had been tasked with mounting flags, attached to aluminum poles, atop stationary flagpoles along a fence in the lot.
The worker got on the scissor lift with a flag on an aluminum pole and raised the lift to reach the top of the stationary flagpole and, as he put the flag into position, the aluminum made contact with the 16,000-volt power lines.
The worker was electrocuted and, after co-workers lowered the scissor lift, he was transported to hospital in critical condition, ultimately succumbing to his injuries. The Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development investigated and determined that Miska did not take sufficient steps to maintain a three-metre distance between the power lines and the flagpole installation.
It was a tragic day," said Miska vice-president Bob Krouse, one that affected everyone at the company very deeply and profoundly. Rather than have anyone have to relive it we accepted full responsibility and have made significant changes over the last two years and look forward to the future."
Miska was found to have failed, as an employer, to take every reasonable precaution under the circumstances to protect a worker, contrary to section 25(2) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Jeff Mahoney is a Hamilton-based reporter and columnist covering culture and lifestyle stories, commentary and humour for The Spectator. Reach him via email: jmahoney@thespec.com