Worker was caught in a screw-fabricating machine
Robert Markle, the director of JTF Davco, was fined $22,000, plus a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge, for the death of a worker who was killed after being caught up in a screw-fabricating machine. The company fabricates screws from brass and other metal stock, among other items.
On Feb. 15, 2017, a worker who was a machine operator was responsible for overseeing the operation of screw machines, including loading stock into the machines and checking product for quality control, at the company’s plant in Toronto.
One of the machines used in the plant was a five-spindle automatic screw machine. It had an exposed stock reel composed of a bundle of five tubes into which thin 12-foot rods of brass stock were placed. The stock was inserted into the machine and the machine would fabricate threaded inserts from the stock.
The stock reel would complete a partial rotation at fixed intervals to accommodate the insertion of different bars of brass stock into the machine. The stock reel was held together with two locking collars, each of which had five bolts, the heads of which protruded from the collar.
During the shift, the worker sat down on a wooden crate near the exposed stock reel. The wooden crate was not a designated seating area. The worker's back was to the bundle.
As the stock reel rotated, the exposed bolt heads of one of the collars grabbed the worker's shirt collar and pulled the shirt into the rotation of the stock reel, which fatally injured the worker.
The cause of death was determined to be neck compression.
The exposed stock reel and locking collars were not protected by a guard or other device to prevent access to the moving parts.
Section 24 of the Industrial Establishments Regulation (Ontario Regulation 851), states that "where a machine or prime mover or transmission equipment has an exposed moving part that may endanger the safety of any worker, the machine or prime mover or transmission equipment shall be equipped with and guarded by a guard or other device that prevents access to the moving part."
Markle committed the offence of failing as a director of JTF Davco to ensure that the corporation complied with Ontario Regulation 851, contrary to section 32(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Markle is registered as the sole director of JTF Davco and occupies all of its officer positions.
