A jury at a coroner’s inquest has made recommendations to improve safety at woodland operations and similar businesses that manufacture wood products.

William Russell died in February 2021 from injuries sustained while working at a mill in Tracyville.

The inquest found Russell’s death was the result of an accident.

The five-member jury heard from nine witnesses and made the following recommendations to WorkSafeNB:

• Utilize mature industries and other jurisdictions in Canada to determine safety standards, best practices, regulations and legislation that will help New Brunswick companies understand and implement safety management systems in a clear, specific and easy-to-understand way.
• Templates and examples could be made available to companies for inspection and documentation requirements. This would be instead of the Occupational Health and Safety Act just saying that documentation or inspection is required.
• More detail should be included in the act or regulation on what is required for training, documenting training, and data on which employees are up to date or who is late for training. Additionally, there should be more detail on the delivery, communication and sign-off for standard operation procedures.

The chief coroner will forward these recommendations to the appropriate agencies for consideration and response.