Worker's Death in Tank Container Results in $105,000 Fine for Oakville Company
December 20, 2018 3:50 P.M.
Convicted: Prokleen Washing Services Inc., 2378 Royal Windsor Drive, Oakville, Ontario, a company that provides washing services for trucks and trailers, petroleum tankers and fuel delivery trucks, highway tractors, chemical tankers, flatbeds, semi-trailers, light-duty trucks, reefers (refrigerated trucks) and dump trucks.
Location: The company's facility in Oakville.
Description of Offence: A worker was found unconscious inside a tank that carried nitrogen. The worker died from asphyxiation.
Date of Offence: January 27, 2017.
Date of Conviction: December 20, 2018.
Penalty Imposed:
Following a guilty plea, Prokleen Washing Services was fined $105,000 by Justice of the Peace Margot McLeod in Milton court; Crown Counsel Wes Wilson.
The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
Background:
Two workers were performing the wash of a customer's tank container that carried nitrogen.
Nitrogen displaces oxygen and can be an asphyxiation hazard in an enclosed space. Neither worker was required to enter the tank to complete the wash.
One of the workers briefly left the workplace and returned. The worker who had remained was found unconscious in the tank.
Emergency medical services were called but the worker could not be revived.
The cause of death was determined by the coroner to be inert gas asphyxiation.
There were no eye witnesses to the incident. The worker was an experienced worker.
The Ministry of Labour's investigation found the company's written plan did not adequately identify certain workplace hazards. In particular, an access point of a customer's container was not equipped with warning signs as to the oxygen-depleted atmosphere of the tank.
Prokleen Washing Services commited the offence of failing as an employer to ensure the measures and procedures prescribed by section 7(1) of Ontario Regulation 632/05 (the Confined Spaces regulation) were carried out in the workplace, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The regulation states that "before any worker enters a confined space, the employer shall ensure an adequate written plan, including procedures for the control of hazards identified in the assessment, has been developed and implemented by a competent person for the confined space."