Blog Post #100 – Wall Collapse Fatally Injures Worker

Excerpt from the OH&S Canada Magazine

A 34-year-old worker was fatally injured on September 8 when a pre-fabricated concrete wall fell on him at a construction site near Halifax.

Chrissy Matheson, a spokesperson for Nova Scotia Labour and Workforce Development, says the accident occurred at about 11:30 am at the Burnside Industrial Park. The five-year employee of Tilt- Pro Contracting was working near the concrete wall, part of the future site of an Armour Transportation Systems (ATS) building, when a cement truck backed into the wall. The contact caused the wall to come down on the worker.
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Blog Post #99 – Electrocution the Result Of Various Issues

Excerpt from the OH&S Canada Magazine

Safe work procedures, employee training and use of personal protective equipment all would have helped prevent a Quebec worker’s electrocution earlier this year, provincial investigators say.

On June 11, 2008, the president of 9121-6028 Quebec Inc. was fatally injured at a construction site in the Quebec village of Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac. Christian Poirier was holding an aluminum ladder when it contacted a 14,400-volt power line.

An accident investigation report — released September 30 by the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST) — notes the death was caused by the unsafe method used to move the ladder and the lack of safe procedures when working around live lines.
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Blog Post #98 – Health & Safety Outside Canada

I have had the honour of suggesting changes in the Ontario, as well as the rest of Canada, health and safety legislation. The previous 99 blogs deal with Canadian content, specifically those in Ontario.

I thought it appropriate to complete the 100th blog with a recent example of an accident in the Galveston , Texas area. It just goes to show that health and safety is a 24/7 responsibility and occupational accidents have no borders.

I do not know the legislation and what laws are broken and it is my hope that someone from the great state of Texas will fill our readers in. Is it covered under Federal or State law? If I receive any follow-up on this particular incident I will forward it to the readers.

Thank you all for the dedicated readership during the first 100 blogs. The comments number over 6,900 as of today’s date, June 26, 2011 and it is my sincere wish to continue to provide quality blogs on health and safety for a long time to come.

Daniel L. Beal
Senior Trainer for HRS Group Inc.
Vice President
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Blog Post #97 – Moonfleet Poultry Inc. Fined $50,000 After Worker Injured

Excerpt from the Government of Ontario’s ‘Newsroom’

Moonfleet Poultry Inc., a Guelph company that collects live chickens from farms and transports them to a poultry processor, was fined $50,000 today for a violation under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), after a worker was injured.

On November 14, 2007, a Moonfleet crew of chicken-catchers was loading chickens at a farm in South-West Oxford. One member of the crew was working from the top of a transport trailer, stacking crates, when the worker fell over 4 meters to the ground below, sustaining a complex fracture to the hip and pelvis.
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