Contractor pinned between scoop tram, forklift – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – July 21, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Production was halted at Vale’s Stobie Mine on Friday after a contract worker was injured in an accident about 9 a.m. A Ministry of Labour investigator happened to be at the mine when the accident occurred and is now looking into it, ministry spokesman Matt Blajer said Friday afternoon.

The ministry hasn’t determined what happened, but Blajer said it was told the employee was standing between a forklift and a scoop tram when another scoop collided with the forklift, pinning the worker. The oncoming scoop operator “did not see the fork sticking out, and the worker was standing between the scoop and the forklift,” said Blajer.

The worker suffered a broken right leg and was transferred to Health Sciences North’s Ramsey Lake Health Centre, he said. The ministry inspector wasn’t expected to file anything official until Monday.

Vale spokeswoman Amanda Eady confirmed the accident and said the labour ministry has frozen the scene. The labour ministry was on site Friday afternoon, as were representatives from the contracting company.

Eady said she couldn’t release the name of the company for which the employee worked, and that that information would have to come from the contractor or “the authorities.”

Eady said the decision was made to cease mine production for the rest of the day at Stobie.”Day-shift employees were not sent home. They were assigned underground housekeeping duties for the remainder of their shift,” she said.

Production was tentatively set to resume with Friday’s night shift, following a review of the incident, said Eady.

Health and safety representatives from United Steelworkers Local 6500 are aware of the incident, said local vice-president Denis Theriault.
    
For the rest of this article, please go to the Sudbury Star website: http://www.thesudburystar.com/2012/07/20/contract-work-badly-hurt-at-stobie-mine