`Improper motivation’ main cause of accidents

Last year, 2,800 mining accidents were reported to the Ontario Workers’ Compensation Board. That is equivalent to 15.5 accidents requiring medical aid for every 200,000 employee hours worked, according to the Mines Accident Prevention Association of Ontario (MAPAO).

Most injuries were minor aches and pains and back-related, MAPAO revealed at its 62nd annual meeting in Toronto. Only two were fatal. The basic cause for most accidents: “improperly motivated” employees.

Significantly, 1992 was the first year in which Ontario’s mining companies had a perfect record of preventing fatalities underground, the most dangerous workplace in the industry.

During the 1980s, the province averaged 11 mining-related deaths per year, most of which occurred underground.

But, contrary to popular opinion, the safety record of Ontario mining is exemplary. Since 1987, claims by miners for which compensation was paid have been lower than the average claim for all other industries in the province. “We should be proud of our proven ability to continue to improve,” Warren Holmes, president and general manager of Falconbridge’s Kidd Creek mine in Timmins, Ont., told delegates at the MAPAO meeting.

The rate of accidents at Kidd Creek has always been lower than the Ontario average, and it continues to improve. So far this year, the total frequency of lost-time and medical-aid accidents per 200,000 employee hours worked at Kidd Creek is 9.8 compared with 10.34 in the same year-ago period. Kidd Creek’s successful safety record is, in part, a result of suggestions from employees, Holmes said.

The company hopes to cut lost-time frequency in half by 1996 and cut the medical-aid accident frequency to five by increasing worker representative involvement.

Last week, however, Falconbridge eliminated 250 jobs at Kidd Creek because of low metals prices. Concerns about safety have naturally been raised. Other mine representatives who discussed safety practices

at the meeting included: John Haflidson, mine manager of American Barrick’s Holt-McDermott mine; M.L. Timmins, safety co-ordinator for Placer Dome’s Campbell mine; Robert Perry, general manager of Placer Dome’s Dome mine; Len Van Eyk, mine superintendent at Inco’s Little Stobie mine; Donald Bouvier, safety supervisor at Teck-Corona’s David Bell mine; and Ernie Krisko, underground mine superintendent at the Doyon mine of Lac Minerals and Cambior.