Company fined $100K for teen’s death

CAMPBELLFORD — Mintech Marketing Inc. has been fined $100,000 in connection with the death of a young worker at its plant last year.

The fine was set by justice of the peace Jack Le Blanc in Cobourg court Wednesday after the company entered a guilty plea, according to the Ministry of Labour.

The court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Bailey McDonald, 18, had worked just three months at the company that collects and resells post-production plastic and other waste products when he lost his life on Jan. 16, 2017.

Without identifying him by name, the ministry said in its release that McDonald died after “a transport trailer fell while the worker was using a propane torch to melt and clear frozen ground around the trailer.”

The legs of the landing gear, which supports a transport trailer when it is not attached to a tractor unit, had been stuck in ice. The worker was left alone to complete the task and at some point moved from the driver side to the passenger side leg of the landing gear.

The trailer the worker was working on fell toward him when the legs that had been supported by the ice collapsed after being released from its hold.