Accident leads to $165K fine for St. Marys Cement
St. Marys Cement Inc. will pay a fine of $165,000 for its role in an accident that led to critical injuries to a worker in 2019.
The company entered a guilty plea in the Ontario Court of Justice. In addition to the fine, it will pay a 25-percent surcharge, the proceeds of which credited to a special government fund to assist victims of crime.
The incident in question occurred in October 2019 at the company’s Bowmanville facility. A worker testing equipment in the Finish Mill, where cement powder is produced. The nature of the testing involves using vibration measurements, and can be performed only while the equipment is in use.
The Finish Mill Cooler is a vertical steel tube, with water that flows down the outside. Access to the top of the cooler is by ladder only. The top perimeter has guardrails around it, and one end of the top of the cooler is covered by a hatch that provides access to the interior of the cooler. The hatch itself is not mechanically secured to the cooler. It is held in place by gravity only.
The cooler can continue to operate if the hatch is open or removed.
Inside the cement cooler, there is a rotor that has a spiral cage up against the tube that moves cement powder up against that outside wall. This process cools the cement powder.
The worker climbed the access ladder and started to take vibration measurements at various locations while the equipment was in operation. During this process the worker stepped on the access hatch cover, which then flipped inward, causing a critical injury to the worker.
An investigation of the incident by inspectors from the Ontario Ministry of Labour concluded that St. Marys had failed to ensure that the access hatch cover on its Finish Mill Cooler 1 was secured in place.
Featured image: Aerial view of the St. Marys Cement plant in Bowmanville. (St Marys Cement)