Northern Ont. company fined $55K when worker injured by exploding tire

A logging skidder is seen in this file photo. An employee with a tire centre was hurt in 2024 in Atikokan when a skidder tire he was reinflating exploded. (File)

A tire centre operating out of Dryden, Ont., has been fined $55,000 after one of its employees received life-threatening injuries from a tire that exploded during a repair.

K.K. Penner Tire Centers Inc. in Dryden is a tire retailer and service company. It responded to a job site in Atikokan on July 16, 2024, on Segwick Road where the worker was hurt.

That day, the worker was dispatched to a logging operations worksite to repair two flat tires from a skidder, a tractor used to remove cut trees and logs.

“Upon arrival, the tires had been removed from the skidder and were ready for service,” the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development said in a news release May 26.

Exploded while tire was being inflated

“After installing an inner tube in the second wheel, the worker began inflating the tire. During inflation, the wheel assembly exploded, causing critical injuries to the worker.”

A ministry investigation determined that as the tire was inflating, the worker was within the “dangerous trajectory zone” of the wheel assembly.

“As such, the company failed to take the reasonable precaution of developing a safe procedure for the servicing of a skidder wheel assembly,” the release said.

The company pleaded guilty April 30 in the Provincial Offences Court in Dryden. The case was heard by Justice of the Peace Lorelei Lindell Van Belleghem. Crown Counsel was Dan Phelan.

The court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act.

The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.