Almost two years after Darrell Richards died after sustaining injuries at American Iron and Metal in Saint John, N.B., there is still no formal hazard identification program in place.
On Tuesday, testimony continued in the coroner’s inquest into his death.
Stephanie Spinney, a health and safety advisor, testified she tried to implement one such program following the incident but was told no, adding that “it was too robust, they didn’t want to do it.”
She testified she had a conversation with the company’s director of operations for Saint John, Ryan Cyr, who she claims told her, “if we did a hazard analysis on everything that came through the door, we wouldn’t have a job.”
She said she started to work on that program after WorkSafeNB completed a gap analysis on the west-side facility.
“There was a program I’ve written and there was no follow through,” she said.
The inquest, with presiding coroner Michael Johnston, spoke to a theme of inexperience with calendar rolls and the safety process for decommissioning them, as well as safety gaps at the Saint John site.
What happened
Richards, 60, was working on June 30, 2022 at American Iron and Metal as a contractor at the time of the incident.
According to WorkSafeNB, Richards was working on a calendar roll to take “denim” material off it.
Calendar rolls are typically used in pulp and paper mills. They are traditionally used for making paper, calendar stack or smooth paper, including magazine paper.
The covers on them can be made of differing materials, including polymer, rubber, granite, cotton (denim) and metals.
A calendar roll can vary in length, but can be up to 25 feet long. It can also weigh, with material, up to 54,000 pounds.
Michel Cyr, manager of investigations for WorkSafeNB, wrote in his presentation that Richards was using a circular saw to cut the denim material off the roll. When he did so, while straddling the calendar roll, energy was released.
About 3,700 pounds of material under 1,500 tonnes of pressure decompressed and sent debris flying into the air and some struck Richards in the groin, severing his femoral artery. A video played to the jury shows Richards being propelled into the air at the moment of impact.
‘Aware’ the calendar rolls ‘were dangerous’
Several people testified on Tuesday that the Saint John AIM facility had never decommissioned or dealt with calendar rolls before.
The calendar rolls were originally purchased from ND Paper in Maine. The mill was downsizing on operations, according to David Falk, who works for ND Paper.
He said they sold it to United Buyers, but require proof of a policy for decommissioning calendar rolls in order to release them.
Emails from Falk to employees who work for United Buyers show him explaining that the compression can pose a risk, saying, “as we have discussed, these are highly compressed and can dangerously release like a compressed spring letting loose if not dismantled properly.”
The two men provided Falk with two methods for removing the compressed material, with which he testified he was satisfied, one of which was to remove it with a LeBounty Sheer.
The other method was to put it in a specialty grinder that was confined that could take off the cotton material. Falk testified he was satisfied with that method.
But said he was not aware it was being resold to American Iron and Metal.
There were three rolls left behind after the sale. Falk admitted they sent those elsewhere for decommissioning.
“After this incident, I certainly lost trust.”
Verne (Joe) Reynolds, who works at American Iron and Metal in Maine, did not appear at the coroner’s inquest, but said he advised AIM SJ the calendar rolls were dangerous once they were shipped.
He said they had dealt with them in Maine, but not recently, but had a process by which to remove the material safely.
Reynolds testified that he wished they had stayed in Maine, but said “someone above me said ‘Ship them out of Saint John.’”
Micheal Height, a shear operator in Maine, who also was not present for the inquest but had audio tapes of his interview with Cyr played, said he has removed the material before, slowly popping it open with about 10 to 15 feet of space between the working area and the cab of his machine.
“I like going home at night. I’m not going to do anything that is going to prevent that,” he said on the tape.
Adam Wallace, an operations manager for AIM, testified Tuesday that he received a call from Reynolds about a week after the accident.
He expressed his condolences but also told him that “he was aware” the calendar rolls “were dangerous”
“I wish he had told me that before,” Wallace testified.
Unofficial safety checks
Michael Cormier, the vice-president for AIM’s Atlantic operations, told the jury on Tuesday that there have been unofficial safety checks of material entering the facility.
Cormier was asked whether the policies have changed since the 2022 incident, and he said it was more robust than it was back then.
“What’s more important is how we identify hazardous materials coming into the facility,” he said of the process.
Some material may be rejected as a result of that process. Nothing is formal he said, but “everyone knows about it.”
A coroner’s inquest does not find any wrongdoing or assign blame but makes recommendations to help prevent similar deaths in the future.