Deficient organization and working methods contributed to the death of a 56-year-old worker hit by a metal structure, last Octoberin the Duberger industrial park.
This is what emerges from the investigation report by the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST), unveiled Thursday in Quebec.
That day, the employee of the Tecno Métal company, acting as a commission agent, was positioned between two trailers while a colleague was busy loading packages of metal bracing weighing more than 1,500 kg.
The worker operating the overhead crane carried out a maneuver aimed at repositioning a package of bracings. Unfortunately, the latter hit another similar package which fell and hit the victim. The fifty-year-old was fatally trapped.
The contact between the two packages is the primary cause of the accident. However, inspectors point out that the victim was positioned in the path of the second package falling.
“The organization of work as well as the methods and techniques related to loading activities using overhead cranes are deficient, which leads to material falling on a worker,” indicates the investigation report.
“The absence of a security perimeter allowed the commission agent to enter the risk zone,” explained inspector Marie-Pier Massicotte at a press conference.
The company was authorized to resume work using the exterior overhead crane a few days later, on October 24, after complying with CNESST requirements.
More details to come…
