BNSF will become the second major freight railroad to allow some of its employees to report safety concerns anonymously through a federal system without fear of discipline. The Federal Railroad Administration announced Thursday that the railroad owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway had agreed to let its roughly 650 dispatchers participate in the program that all the major railroads promised to join after last year’s disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment in Ohio. “Rail workers deserve to know they’re safe when they’re on the job — and if they experience anything tha ..read more

After over seven months of meetings being on hold, BC Ferries will be moving back to in-person engagement. Virtual ferry advisory committee (FAC) meetings will begin in May, and in-person meetings will resume in June, said an April 19 press release. Last summer, BC Ferries experienced several incidents where there were concerns raised about staff safety, including one instance in a Gibsons meeting where one community member threatened to “take a gun” to BC Ferries staff. The BC Ferries release detailed new terms of reference for the FACs and meeting protocols. It also included an int ..read more

A custom metal manufacturing company in Vars, Ont., has been fined $110,000 after a worker was killed in an accident involving a forklift. On June 1, 2022, a worker and the president of Performance Finishing & Fabrication were working together to place a metal beam (33’7″ x 10″ x 2.5″) beside another metal beam, to manufacture a steel trailer frame for a mobile home. The company president was transporting a metal beam on a forklift. The worker was on the ground to steady the beam being lifted. The metal beam was not secured to the forklift, and the unsecured metal beam went over the head ..read more

Protesters chanted “Blood on your hands” at Tennessee House Republicans on Tuesday after they passed a bill that would allow some teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on public school grounds, and bar parents and other teachers from knowing who was armed. The 68-28 vote in favor of the bill sent it to Republican Gov. Bill Lee for consideration. If he signs it into law, it would be the biggest expansion of gun access in the state since last year’s deadly shooting at a private elementary school in Nashville. Members of the public who oppose the bill harangued Republican lawma ..read more

A federal jury on Monday said BNSF Railway contributed to the deaths of two people who were exposed to asbestos decades ago when tainted mining material was shipped through a Montana town where thousands have been sickened. The jury awarded $4 million each in compensatory damages to the estates of the two plaintiffs, who died in 2020. Jurors said asbestos-contaminated vermiculite that spilled in the rail yard in the town of Libby, Montana was a substantial factor in the plaintiffs’ illnesses and deaths. Family members of the two victims hugged their attorneys after the verdict w ..read more

The Alberta Legislature building in Edmonton. Photo: Rita Petcu/Adobe Stock Alberta is proving a $175,000 grant to support the SafeGen program, which is dedicated to teaching young people about workplace safety. “Historically, young workers have experienced higher rates of occupational injury and illness than other workers. It’s important that Alberta’s young people get valuable work experience and that they are working in healthy and safe environments. The SafeGen program helps students acquire skills and experience with a solid foundation of workplace health and safety knowledge,” said Mat ..read more

Boucher Bros. Lumber has pled guilty to charges under Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act after a worker was injured by a wood planer. The charges stem from an incident at a Nampa lumber and building supplies business on Sept. 28, 2022. The worker was injured when their hand contacted the blades of a wood planer. Under a creative sentence, the company will pay $102,000 to the Alberta Forest Products Association for a mill safety education campaign that includes developing a series of safety education videos aimed at the lumber industry. The OHS Act provides a creative ..read more

Photo: Adobe Stock The Ontario government is putting a focus on falls from heights and struck-bys on construction sites across the province. From April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025, it will conduct two enforcement campaigns. One will focus on falls from heights and the other will focus on struck-bys. Falls from heights in single family residential and multi-family residential From April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, it will conduct a health and safety campaign focused on falls from heights in: single family residential construction, including residential re-roofing multi-family residential ..read more

BNSF Railway attorneys are expected to argue before jurors Friday that the railroad should not be held liable for the lung cancer deaths of two former residents of an asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the deadliest sites in the federal Superfund pollution program. Attorneys for the Warren Buffett-owned company say the railroad’s corporate predecessors didn’t know the vermiculite it hauled over decades from a nearby mine was filled with hazardous microscopic asbestos fibers. The case in federal civil court over the two deaths is the first of numerous lawsuits against the ..read more

FILE – Emergency personnel work at the site of a deadly explosion at a chocolate factory, March 24, 2023, in West Reading, Pa. Pennsylvania utility regulators must turn over inspection records to the National Transportation Safety Board as part of the federal agency’s probe into a fatal explosion at a chocolate factory last year, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (Jeff Doelp/Reading Eagle via AP, File) Pennsylvania utility regulators must turn over inspection records to the National Transportation Safety Board as part of the federal agency’s probe into a fatal explosion at a cho ..read more