Inco has been fined $750,000 for violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act that resulted in the death of a miner at the company’s Copper Cliff South mine, in Copper Cliff, Ont.
In April 1996, Raymond Courchesne, 49, was killed when a switch on a rock-bolt machine failed as a result of corrosion, causing the boom to pin him against the operator’s console.
After a 4-day trial in Sudbury Provincial Court, Inco was found guilty of failing to give information, instruction and supervision to a worker concerning the hazard of pinch point on a rock-bolt machine; failing to provide a mechanism to prevent the machine’s boom from endangering a worker; and failing to maintain in good condition the remote control pendant that operated the boom.
The company was fined $250,000 on each count; it is the largest penalty ever levied under the act.
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