Convicted: Accuristix, Inc., 2844 Bristol Circle, Oakville, Ontario, L6H 6G4, a company which provides services to the healthcare industry that operates a warehouse in Woodbridge.
Location of Workplace: 122 Stone Ridge Road, Woodbridge, Vaughan, Ontario, L4H 0A5.
Description of Offence: A worker suffered a critical injury while performing work at the Woodbridge warehouse.
Date of Offence: October 18, 2019.
Date of Conviction: October 1, 2021.
Penalty Imposed:
- Following a guilty plea in the Ontario Court of Justice, Provincial Offences Court, Newmarket, Accuristix, Inc., was fined $70,000.
- The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
Background:
- On October 18, 2019 a worker employed by Accuristix, Inc., was operating a stand-up forklift without authorization from the company.
- This employee drove toward another worker on a stationary rider forklift to hand him an electronic scanner.
- The second worker suffered a critical injury when stepping off the rider forklift.
- The driver of the stand-up forklift had received health and safety instruction and training annually.
- The safety training stated that unlicensed employees were prohibited from operating motorized material handling equipment, and that an operator should never drive motorized material handling equipment toward a pedestrian standing in front of a fixed object.
- It was found that Accuristix, Inc., failed as an employer to ensure the forklift causing the injury was operated by a competent person contrary to s. 51(2) of Regulation and s. 25(1)(c) of the Act.