"The worker suffered critical injuries....."

We tour many many aluminium plants throughout our industry. Over the course of years we have come to quickly view hazards that companies are unaware of. This unawareness commonly will result in an incident involving either a severe injury or all too often a fatality. Please note that being unaware of a hazard is not done with malice to the workers. With that said the most common hazard we observe in plants is older machinery. It is our opinion that older machinery is the leading reason for finger (digit) amputations and decapitations in our industry. We are not advocating removing all older machinery. On the contrary there is nothing wrong with older machinery. Except older machinery commonly does not have the safety mechanisms that current machinery has. What to do? Well, all machinery should be audited on a regular schedule for a variety of safety hazards. Afterwards the audit should be reviewed by management and the original equipment manufacturer should be contacted for assistance. If the original equipment manufacturer is not business find a safety consultant that can recommend the necessary changes to make the machinery safer. Making a machinery safer should not affect the production rate. It should not in our experience. Here is a recent story that we would assume that the machinery is older and lacks the current safety mechanisms that would have prevented this incident.

An aluminium manufacturer in Canada was fined $90,000 in December 2019 stemming from an incident in which a worker was critically injured while trying to remove a piece of aluminum from a punch press.

The incident occurred June 2018 at aluminium manufacturer where a worker was using a punch press to cut pieces of aluminum window frame.

A piece of aluminum became stuck in the machine and when the worker attempted to remove the jammed piece by pulling at the part, the top die section of the machine moved downward.

The worker suffered critical injuries.

An inspector from the Ministry of Labour attended the scene and determined the punch press was a machine with an exposed moving part that endangered the safety of a worker.

"Specifically, the die section of the punch press was not guarded to prevent worker access," the Ministry of Labour report reads.

The company was found guilty of failing to ensure the measures and procedures required by the Occupational Health and Safety Act were carried out in a workplace. This is the second time this company has been convicted of an offence under the same subsection act. 

In the summer of 2014, the company was fined $75,000 after a worker sustained serious hand injuries while operating a table saw. In both instances, the court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act.

We pray for the injured worker. We are unaware of what exactly his injuries were. All we know is “The worker suffered critical injuries.” We do not know if the worker suffered finger amputations or if the damage to the hand was so severe that the worker will have a long term disability. Regardless, we pray for the worker and his family.

We post these incidents not to place blame on the company nor the worker. But, with the sincere hope that these postings will be used to make a plant safer. That is why do this blog. Our goal is simple to save one life. That by all our actions in promoting safety in this industry, speaking to thousands of workers, writing countless articles. Our goal is simple. To save just one life. We know will never know if we succeeded. But hopefully if we make it to heaven the dear Lord will say that we accomplished our goal. Then it will all have been worth it.

The Aluminium Times Magazine had an article on this topic. The article can be found here. 

Here are a few other articles involving this topic:

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