Goodyear Canada Fined for Worker Injury

Goodyear Canada was fined CA$55,000 on April 11 after pleading guilty in connection with a workplace injury that occurred in 2006. Justice Katrina Mulligan heard in the Ontario Court of Justice that the injured employee was working at Goodyear’s Bowmanville facility on November 8, 2006, when the incident occurred. The employee was working on a machine making conveyor belts when he walked into the path of an electronic beam guard that stops the machine’s operation. However, the electronic beam guard failed to prevent the machine from being restarted by an automatic start button. The worker pressed the button and the worker’s arm was drawn into the machine at a pinch point and broken.

An investigation concluded that Goodyear failed, as an employer, to ensure that a piece of equipment with the potential to endanger worker safety was equipped with a guard that prevented access to the pinch point. This omission contravened relevant health and safety regulations. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge on the total, as required by provincial legislation. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.