Baldy Mountain Resort has been fined $7,031.05 for high-risk health and safety violations over the death of a 70-year-old employee back on February 26, 2021.
According to WorkSafeBC, two workers were travelling in a snowcat (grooming machine) to conduct maintenance on another piece of equipment.
The snowcat was parked and one of the workers exited. The snowcat then inadvertently moved forward and the worker was caught under it, sustaining fatal injuries.
Despite the efforts of other employees and emergency first aid attendants on the mountain, the 70-year-old man did not survive and was pronounced deceased.
WorkSafeBC attended the firm’s worksite in response to the incident and following an investigation determined that the machine’s tiller had malfunctioned, preventing the operator from reversing the machine after the injured worker was caught.
In addition, neither worker had been adequately trained on this machine, which lacked an interlock mechanism to automatically apply the parking brake when a door of the cab was opened.
Furthermore, no hazard identification or risk assessment had been conducted for the planned maintenance activities and no safe work procedures had been developed, WorkSafeBC said.
“The firm failed to ensure the health and safety of all workers at its worksite and failed to provide its workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety. These were both high-risk violations.”
According to WorkSafeBC the amount of a penalty is based on the nature of the violation, a company’s history of violations, and the size of the company’s payroll.
Penalties can be greater if certain specific factors are present, such as for high-risk or intentional violations, or if the company has received a prior penalty for substantially the same violation in the past three years.
