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Triple M Housing in the Sherring Industrial Park, north Lethbridge

OH & S charges against Triple M Housing subsidiaries withdrawn, but remain against parent company

Sep 10, 2019 | 12:40 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – A Lethbridge Housing company facing dozens of charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act to its parent company and its 11 subsidiaries, will have the charges against the subsidiaries withdrawn.

A lawyer for the company appeared in Lethbridge Provincial Court Tuesday (Sept. 10).

The charges that remain against Triple M Housing include:

· Failure to ensure the health and safety of a worker by failing to ensure the use of spotters when operating the crane system

· Failing to provide instruction on where stands should have been placed

· Failing to ensure that stands or other objects were not placed by the guard railing located on the mezzanine level

· Failing to ensure that the worker did not work in the potential fall path of objects from the mezzanine level above the work area

· Failure to assess their work site and identify existing or potential hazards when a new work process was introduced, or a work process or operation changed

· Failure to ensure that date and time were entered into the logbook when any work was performed on the lifting device

· Failure to ensure that inspections, including examinations, checks and tests that were performed were entered into the logbook

· Failure to ensure a record of a certification was entered into the logbook

· Failure to ensure that any matter or incident that may affect the safe operation of the lifting device was entered into the logbook

· Failure to ensure where a worker may be injured if equipment or material was dislodged, moved or spilled, that the material was contained, restrained or protected to eliminate potential danger

· Failure to ensure that repairs or modifications performed were entered into the logbook

· Failure to ensure that the bridge, jib, or monorail, gantry or overhead travelling crane met safety requirements

· Failure to ensure that workers in a work area where there may be falling objects were protected from the falling objects by an overhead safeguard.

According to Occupational Health and Safety documents, on May 15, 2017, a worker at the Triple M facility in north Lethbridge was struck by a falling steel roof truss stand from the mezzanine area above. The worker who has since been identified as Angela Entz, was admitted to hospital because of the injuries she suffered in the incident.

Entz was then flown by STARS Air Ambulance to Calgary Foothills Hospital, where she remained for several months, following surgery and extensive rehabilitation. She has since regained some movement in her hands.

She, along with several supporters, came to the Lethbridge Courthouse Tuesday to observe the Provincial Court proceedings.

Triple M Housing CEO and President Rick Weste issued a statement in July indicating that the company is “deeply saddened by the incident and the loss their employee and her family have suffered.”

He says the company has had no previous charges, and its dedication to safety includes holding a Certificate of Recognition in the Alberta Partnerships in Health and Safety Program Since 1999.

The matter was adjourned, but will be back before the courts Oct. 1