Achi news desk-
Nearly two years after Darrell Richards died after sustaining injuries at American Iron and Metal in St. John, NB, there is still no formal hazard identification program in place.
On Tuesday, testimony continued at the coroner’s inquest into his death.
Stephanie Spinney, a health and safety consultant, testified that she tried to implement one such plan following the incident, but was told no, adding that “it was too strong, they didn’t want to do it.”
She testified that she had a conversation with the company’s director of operations for St. John, Ryan Cyr, who she claims told her, “If we did a risk analysis on everything that came through the door, we wouldn’t have a job.”
She said she started working on this plan after WorkSafeNB completed a gap analysis at the west side facility.
“There was a program I wrote and there was no follow-up,” she said.
The inquest, with coroner president Michael Johnston, spoke to the issue of inexperience with calendar rolls and the safety process for removing them, as well as safety gaps at the St John site.
What happened
Richards, 60, was working on June 30, 2022 at American Iron and Metal as a contractor at the time of the incident.
According to WorkSafeNB, Richards was working on a calendar roll to remove “denim” material from it.
Calendar rolls are commonly used in pulp and paper mills. They are traditionally used to make paper, calendar stack or plain paper, including magazine paper.
The covers on them can be made of various materials, including polymer, rubber, granite, cotton (denim) and metals.
A calendar roll can vary in length, but can be up to 25 feet. It can also weigh, with material, up to 54,000 pounds.
Michelle Cyr, WorkSafeNB’s director of investigations, wrote in his presentation that Richards used a circular saw to cut the denim material from the roll. As he did so, as he stretched across the calendar scroll, energy was released.
About 3,700 pounds of material under 1,500 tons of pressure released the compactor and sent debris flying into the air and some struck Richards in the groin, severing his femoral artery. A video played to the jury shows Richards being pushed into the air at the moment of impact.
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‘Aware’ that calendar scrolls ‘were dangerous’
Several people testified Tuesday that the Saint John AIM facility had never decommissioned or handled a calendar before.
The calendar rolls were originally purchased from ND Paper in Maine. The mill has scaled back operations, according to David Falk, who works for ND Paper.
He said they sold it to United Buyers, but require proof of a calendar roll cancellation policy to release them.
Emails from Falk to employees working for United Buyers show him explaining that the compression could pose a risk, saying, “As we’ve discussed, these are very compressed and can dangerously come loose like a compressed spring coming loose if not disassembled properly.”
Both men provided Falk with two methods of removing the compressed material, which he testified he was satisfied with, one of which was to remove it with a LeBounty Sheer.
The other method was to put it in a special grinder that was closed that could take off the cotton material. Falk testified that he was satisfied with this method.
But said he was unaware it had been resold to American Iron and Metal.
Three rolls left after the sale. Falk admitted that they sent them elsewhere for dismantling.
“After this incident, I definitely lost faith.”
Vern (Joe) Reynolds, who works for American Iron and Metal in Maine, did not appear at the coroner’s inquest, but said he advised AIM SJ that the calendar rolls were dangerous once they were shipped.
He said they handled them in Maine, but not recently, but they had a process to get the material out safely.
Reynolds testified that he wanted them to stay in Maine, but said “someone above me said, ‘Send them out of St. John’.”
Micheal Height, a shearer operator in Maine, who also was not present at the inquest but audiotapes of his interview with Cyr were played, said he had removed the material before, opening it slowly with about 10 to 15 feet of space between the work area and the cab of his machine.
“I like going home at night. I’m not going to do anything to prevent that,” he said in the recording.
Adam Wallace, AIM’s director of operations, testified Tuesday that he received a call from Reynolds about a week after the accident.
He expressed his condolences but also told him that “he was aware” that the rolls in the calendar were “dangerous”
“I wish he would have told me that first,” Wallace testified.
Informal safety checks
Michael Cormier, AIM’s vice president of Atlantic operations, told the jury on Tuesday that informal safety checks were conducted on material entering the facility.
Cormier was asked if the policy had changed since the 2022 incident, and he said it was stronger than it was then.
“What is more important is how we identify dangerous substances that enter the facility,” he said of the process.
Certain material may be rejected as a result of this process. Nothing official he said, but “everyone knows about it”.
A coroner’s inquest finds no wrongdoing or blame, but makes recommendations to help prevent similar deaths in the future.