AIM Recycling Makes First Court Appearance in Workplace Death Case
SAINT JOHN — American Iron & Metal Recycling (AIM) will have more time to review court documents in its ongoing legal battle over a death connected to its Saint John plant.
Sixty-year-old Darrell Richards suffered life-threatening injuries while working at AIM’s west Saint John facility on June 30, 2022. He died in the hospital the next day, according to police.
AIM Recycling now faces four charges related to Richards’ death under the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act. Those charges include:
- Failing to take every reasonable precaution to ensure the health and safety of Richards;
- Failing to acquaint an employee with any hazard related to the handling and disposal of a calender roll;
- Failing to provide the information that is necessary to ensure an employee’s health and safety; and
- Failing to ensure that work is competently supervised and that supervisors have sufficient knowledge.
In a brief court appearance on March 13, a lawyer representing AIM asked for an adjournment in the case. Dawson Harrison told the court AIM had received disclosure from the Crown but needed more time to review it.
The judge granted the adjournment and set the case over until April 11 for plea.
Laragh Dooley, the executive director of corporate communications for WorkSafeNB, said a violation of the act carries a maximum penalty of $250,000.
Dooley said the highest penalty to date in New Brunswick for a violation of the act has been $125,000.
Richards’s death was the second workplace fatality at the Saint John facility in less than a year. A man, who has never been identified, died in a separate incident in late November 2021.
Owner Herb Black has said that “to his knowledge” nothing could have been done to prevent either death, adding his operations are “extremely safe.”
“It’s just coincidence or an act of God that things happen,” Black told Acadia Broadcasting in July.
Black said workers at the facility know they are safe and that these deaths were accidental.
“You could have an accident coming to work. You could get hit by a bus.”
Brad Perry is the Regional News Director for New Brunswick at Acadia Broadcasting, Huddle content partners.