Ontario Power Generation (OPG) pleaded guilty and was fined $100,000 in a Dryden courtroom for an accident that burned a worker.
On Jan. 15, 2008, two maintenance workers at OPG's Atikokan Generating Station were examining some malfunctioning equipment. The equipment was locked in a chamber to protect workers from its electrically energized, moving apparatus.
The lockout system required equipment to be electrically de-energized, grounded and locked out before the chamber could open.
An equipment operator used a bypass key to circumvent the lockout system and opened a hatch door while the equipment was still energized. One of the workers shone a flashlight into the open door, causing an arc flash of electricity which burned the worker's hand, arm and chest.
OPG pleaded guilty for failing to take the reasonable precaution of preventing ready access to the means of circumventing the lockout system.
Justice Peter Bishop of the Ontario Court of Justice levied the fine Jan. 18.
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