DSI Mill Construction Fined

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Court fines DSI Mill Construction in death of worker

EDMONTON

A Slave Lake construction company must pay $350,000 after pleading guilty to a charge under the Occupational Health and Safety Act relating to the death of a worker.

Donald Selmer Gullickson died May 29, 2004, after plunging four metres from a scaffolding platform and hitting his head on a concrete pad below.

DSI Mill Construction Ltd. pleaded guilty to failing to make a written hazard assessment report and providing that report to affected workers at the work site.

DSI was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and to give $345,000 to the University of Alberta Faculty of Engineering for its engineering safety and risk management program. In exchange for the guilty plea, 10 other OH&S charges were withdrawn. A single related charge against the Slave Lake Pulp Corp. was also withdrawn.

DSI was installing a new log feeder at a pulp mill near Slave Lake at Mitsue, which involved the erection of a steel support structure for the deck of the new log in-feed area.

Court heard Gullickson had been wearing a full-body, five-point-fall arrest harness at the time, but it was not tied off to any anchor point.