Maritime Company Charged After Worker Dies

The Workers’ Compensation Board of Prince Edward Island has charged a PEI wood-processing company in connection with an occupational fatality that occurred in Avondale, PEI, in February of this year.

Kenneth Duffenais, 34, died after he became caught in a tree harvester’s jaws. He had been reaching to pick up a branch when the machine somehow became activated. No operator was at the controls of the harvester at the time. Although he was able to walk away from the machine, Duffenais suffered serious injuries and died before reaching hospital.

Island Pulp Producers is facing four OHS charges. They include failure to ensure employees were not exposed to health and safety hazards, failure to provide adequate equipment to keep workers safe, failure to ensure that interlock guards on equipment had not been tampered with and failure to ensure that machinery could not move during maintenance, repair or cleaning.