The City of London has been fined $70,000, plus a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge, in connection with a 2018 workplace injury that left an employee of the water operations division with “critical injuries.”
According to the Ministry of Labour, a cap on a drain pipe shot off and struck a worker on Oct. 16, 2018 at a water drain chamber in a ravine near Fanshawe Park Road and Wonderland Road North.
The investigation found that the city failed “to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that the internal pressure of the drain pipeline was released before the mechanical joint end cap was removed and/or loosened.”
The ministry says a crew of workers was instructed by their supervisor to prepare the water drain chamber, which was “to receive water drained out from the main water line” so a new valve could be added to the main line the next day.
Part of the preparations involved making sure the valve connecting the drain pipeline to the main water line was closed and pumping groundwater into the water drain chamber. For that task, workers remove a mechanical joint cap assembly at the end of the drain pipeline so the water in the main line drains through the pipeline and into the chamber.
One worker was inside the chamber to remove the joint cap assembly and began loosening its top two bolts when they noticed water spraying and a hissing sound, suggesting pressure had built up inside the drain pipeline, the ministry says.
The worker stepped back a little and as they began communicating with co-workers, the ministry says the cap exploded off the drain pipeline, striking the worker.
The ministry says the ensuing investigation found that the city failed as an employer “to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker, which is an offense under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.”
A guilty plea was made in provincial offences court and the city was fined $70,000, plus the victim fine surcharge, on Oct. 8.
The City of London told Global News that, for privacy reasons, the city is unable to provide information on the injured worker.
“We take our responsibility for the health and safety of our employees very seriously. We have just received the decision today and will be taking time to review it in full,” the city said Tuesday evening.
“Until we’ve had an opportunity to do that, we won’t be providing any further comment.”
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