Kirkland Lake auto shop fined for faulty equipment that injured two.

A Kirkland Lake car dealership was fined $45,000 for a 2017 shop accident that injured two employees.

Lake Shore Motors pled guilty and was fined by Justice of the Peace Theodore A. Hodgins in a Kirkland Lake courtroom, June 18.

With the fine comes a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge, required by the Provincial Offences Act, which goes into a special fund to assist victims of crime.

On Feb. 21, 2017, two workers were critically injured while standing beneath a 10,000-pound hoist used to raise a vehicle undergoing repair in the dealership's servicing facility.

The vehicle was raised approximately six feet in the air and the workers were standing underneath doing repairs when it suddenly fell off the hoist to the floor.

A Ministry of Labour investigation revealed that at least one of the four restraint arms on the hoist had swung out of place, causing the entire vehicle to slip off and fall.

Examination of the restraints revealed that the teeth on the gears, which were supposed to lock the arms in place, were worn, rusted and in poor condition. The metal bars that hold the restraints together were bent.

Ministry inspectors tested the equipment and found several shortcomings. One of the swing arms moved easily out of the set position when pushed by hand; a second swing arm moved out of position when forcibly pushed by hand; and a third swing arm moved out of the set position when forcibly pushed by two inspectors.

A ministry engineer concluded that the restraint devices had not functioned properly for an extended period of time. Pads on the swing arms were found to be worn and in poor condition.

Several of the other hoists in the workplace were examined and found to be in similarly poor condition.

An independendy hired inspector concluded that the hoists showed years of wear and identified a number of items that needed to be...