described both men’s injuries as “serious and crushing injuries.”

Potential hazards are sometimes difficult to address in our plants. Why, because many times potential hazards never result in an incident. Unfortunately, sometimes potential hazards become real hazards, and sadly incidents occur. Here is a recent story emphasizing the need for identification of potential hazards.

A male worker has died, and a second male was sent to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, following an industrial accident at an aluminum plant in Canada one afternoon during the week of March 1, 2015.

According to information from the provincial Ministry of Labour (MOL), a rack containing window frames came loose and fell onto the two workers at the company, which manufactures window walls and doors for office buildings, condominiums and hotels.

Emergency medical services were dispatched to the scene immediately and tried to revive one of the men, but were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. The other man was airlifted to a hospital 40 kilometers away with critical injuries.

Regional Police responded to the incident at about 4:45 p.m. that day, according to a press release, which described both men’s injuries as “serious and crushing injuries.” Fire responders also attended the accident scene, the police added, as did a coroner later on.

The MOL received notification of the incident at about 5:30, noted the media representative with the ministry. “Our ministry dispatched an inspector to the scene immediately and issued a requirement to the aluminium company not to disturb the scene,” said the media representative with the ministry. “Our investigation is currently ongoing.”

The names and ages of the victims have not been released publicly, as is standard practice. But media reports have stated the hospitalized employee’s age as being in the 50s.

The media representative with the ministry could not ascertain whether this sort of accident was a common or typical danger at plants such as this plant. “I don’t want to characterize it in any way,” he said, adding that it was up to the MOL’s investigation to determine what had caused the incident.

­The aluminium plant safety blog offers our sincere condolences and prayers to the deceased worker’s family, friends, and coworkers. We also pray that the injured worker recovers fully from his physical and mental injuries.

Racks containing finished product, scrap, raw materials, etc. are common throughout our industry. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog have posted incidents in the past where such racks have toppled resulting in workers being injured or killed. All racks should be periodically inspected for structural integrity as well as the potential of tipping over. 

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