Shercom to pay $420K over 2015 death of worker in tire shredder

SASKATOON The tire shredder that killed 18-year-old Cade Jacob Sprackman didn’t have an emergency stop button, even though another Shercom Industries worker had been injured by the same machine just 10 days earlier.

“This accident could have been prevented when somebody else got hurt just days before … Cade would be here if they would have done something,” his father Jerry Sprackman said outside Saskatoon provincial court on Thursday.

Citing that “egregious” fact and a history of “superficial attention to employee safety,” Judge Marilyn Gray imposed a $300,000 fine plus a $120,000 victim surcharge against the company, which is located in the Corman Park industrial area just outside Saskatoon.

The fine, which is one of the highest ever for a company its size in Saskatchewan, reflects a recent “significant increase to the maximum penalty set by the legislature, (which) is a strong signal to the courts that penalties must be greater and that companies must not view a fine simply as another cost of doing business,” Gray said.

“Safety in the workplace must be more than a set of laminated instructions, common sense and managerial admonishments respecting the rules,” she said.

“It seems elementary that there should be (emergency stops), especially when dealing with such powerful machinery and knowing that people routinely did not go to turn off the equipment each time a blockage occurred. These emergency stops were subsequently installed at a mere cost of $2,550,” Gray said.

“Safety concerns were considered secondary to profits,” she remarked.

There was “no true effort to address workplace safety until after the death,” she said.

Company managers did not have any Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) training and there were no regular OHS meetings, Gray noted.

Even when machinery and safety features were installed after notices of contravention, they were done in a “piecemeal fashion, without consultation of safety experts or engineers,” she said.

When forced to install safety features or equipment, the company’s main concern was that the work be done efficiently, ensuring downtime was minimal and productivity optimal.

Sprackman had been with the company for just three weeks when he died at work on Jan. 17, 2015.

He had recently moved from his small hometown of Hudson Bay, where he was the eldest of Michelle and Jerry’s Sprackman’s four children.

“He had big dreams to get into cinema one day. He wanted to direct. He was very artistic, he loved to paint so this was a stepping stone to a brighter future,” a tearful Michelle Sprackman said outside court.

“Employers need to take ownership and look after their employees, make sure they know what’s happening at the ground level on the front line and keep them safe,” she said.

Crown prosecutor Buffy Rodgers said the combined penalty and victim fine surcharge is “one of the highest fines we have seen in this province for a corporation this size.”

Shercom lawyer, John Agioritis said the company accepts responsibility and is remorseful about the death, which was “a catalyst for change for Shercom.”

The company will review the decision and has not ruled out an appeal, he said. Shercom is owned by Shane Olson.