Mississauga company fined $50,000 after worker critically injured in a garbage truck incident
Published May 19, 2023 at 11:36 am
A Mississauga company was fined $50,000 after a worker was critically injured in a garbage truck incident.
The worker was reaching into the hopper of a waste collection truck while its machinery was engaged at a Stratford landfill site on Dec. 8, 2020, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development said in a press release today (May 19).
Canadian Waste Management Inc., at 5425 Dixie Rd. in Mississauga, operated the waste collection truck as they held a contract with the City of Stratford for garbage, recycling and organic waste pickup.
The worker engaged the machinery of the truck to push waste from the hopper towards the tailgate to be emptied when they noticed a garbage bag had fallen behind the ram that was pushing the waste, the release notes.
With the machinery still running, the worker used a plastic snow brush, taken from the garbage, to move the fallen bag closer. The worker then reached into the truck to grab the bag.
The worker’s jacket got caught in the machinery and the worker was critically injured.
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Earlier that day, the worker and a supervisor had inspected the truck and noticed the safety plate that normally covered the moving parts in the hopper area of the truck was missing.
The supervisor told the worker to keep their hands away from the area but permitted them to use the truck without the safety plate in place.
Justice of the Peace Michael A. Cuthbertson found Canadian Waste Management Inc. violated Section 25(2)(h) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act by failing to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that the exposed moving parts were guarded to prevent access.
“The company failed, as an employer, to ensure the truck was equipped with, and guarded by, a guard or other device to prevent access to its moving parts,” the Ministry notes.
Canadian Waste Management Inc. was fined $50,000 and the court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
Editors note: The featured image in a previous version of this story showed a truck from another waste management company in error. inSauga regrets the error and apologizes for any confusion it may have caused.
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