Campbellford recycling company fined $100,000 for teen worker’s death

A Campbellford, Ont., recycling company has been fined $100,000 for an industrial accident that claimed the life of an employee in January 2017.

Mintech Marketing, a company that collects and resells post-production plastic and other waste products, pleaded guilty in provincial court in Cobourg on Wednesday to offences under the Industrial Establishments Regulation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Court heard that on Jan. 16, 2017, employee Bailey McDonald was asked to use a propane torch to melt and clear frozen ground around the landing-gear legs of a transport trailer in order to move the transport. Landing-gear legs support the trailer when it is not attached to a tractor unit.

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Justice of the Peace Jack Le Blanc heard that at some point, McDonald, 18, moved from the driver side to the passenger side leg of the landing gear.

“This placed the worker in a relatively narrow area between the trailer being worked on and another full trailer,” the Ministry of Labour stated in its investigation.

Suddenly, the trailer legs which had been supported by ice suddenly collapsed upon being released from the ice. It caused the tractor trailer to fall forward and onto McDonald, court heard.

“The worker was fatally injured as a result of being pinned between the two trailers,” the MOL stated.

The ministry concluded the trailer in question was not placed or stored “so that it would not tip, collapse or fall, resulting in the accident.”

Justice Le Blanc also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge which is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.