Global Courant 2023-04-11 14:00:40
Kody Thorne’s left hand was crushed while working on the Poley Mountain ski hill in January 2019. (Hadeel Ibrahim/CBC)
One day in January 2019, in the aftermath of a severe ice storm hitting New Brunswick, Kody Thorne was called to the Poley Mountain ski hill to help machines clear what the storm had caused.
Before the day was over, the 18-year-old’s life would change forever.
Three hours after his shift started, Thorne was in his friend’s car, clutching his shattered left hand as they rushed to the hospital.
“I was like, ‘Wow, this is death. This is how it will end for me,'” he said.
Four years later, after months of physical therapy and several surgeries, Thorne knows he will never regain full use of his left hand.
But he moves on with his life and indeed has his sights set on a career in occupational health and safety, to work in a field where – as a young injured worker – he can bring a lived experience.
He has also devoted the past year to better understanding what happened that day, in hopes of helping other people avoid the pain he endured.
A communication error
With the mound closed in the aftermath of the ice storm, Thorne and two colleagues were assigned to work on equipment that had frozen.
Thorne was brushing ice off the gears of the carpet lift – a large conveyor belt that takes people up small hills – when his hand was grabbed and then pulled inward. The elevator stopped.
Last month, Kody Thorne took the licensing exam to become a registered safety technician. (Pat Richard/CBC)
In a panic, Thorne tried to pull out his hand and yelled at a nearby employee, “Don’t start the elevator.” The person halfway up the hill relayed the message to the person in the control room at the top.
But hearing only the words “start the elevator”, the worker at the top turned on the machine.
Thorne’s entire arm was pulled into the inner workings of the elevator machine. A colleague was given a hacksaw to free his arm.
The incident affected his employer. The following year, Poley Mountain Resorts Ltd. found guilty in court of failing to provide adequate supervision and was fined $3,000. Judge Andrew Palmer said he found no blatant disregard for safety.
Knowing more now than he did as a teenager, Thorne wonders if enough has changed to prevent such an incident from happening again.
WATCH: Kody Thorne on why he focuses on occupational health and safety:
“Looking at it now from a health and safety perspective,” he said in an interview, “even if there was surveillance, that elevator still wouldn’t have locked. I would still have been in the same position, I would still I haven’t had the training.”
Fill the holes
After the company’s fine was imposed, Poley Mountain Resorts president Stephen Moffett told CBC News that the injury had brought loopholes to their attention, including the lack of lockout procedures that would have disabled the machine, reducing the risk that someone accidentally turned it on.
In response to questions from CBC News, Jamie Hare, current general manager of Poley Mountain, said that since Thorne’s injury, the hill has done a full safety review of processes and training. In a written statement, he said the company has a new learning management system to track what training each employee has received.
Thorne said he still knows people who work there and has seen a change on the hill.
But he said it is not clear to him whether anything has changed in the supervision of WorkSafeNB, the body that enforces the Working Conditions Act.
“I would like to see (the changes) monitored,” he said.
Laragh Dooley, executive director of corporate communications for WorksafeNB, said employers are not alone in keeping workplaces safe.
“Everyone in the workplace is responsible for their own safety and that of colleagues,” she said.
WorkSafeNB carries out an average of 6,000 inspections per year. She said there are about 30,000 workplaces in New Brunswick.
She said the organization considers risk factors and incident records when determining how often to inspect a workplace.
When asked what has changed since the Poley Mountain incident, she said WorkSafeNB worked with the company to ensure they had a proper training program for their employees who work near carpet lifts.
“Our investigation focused on the carpet lift and no other similar equipment was identified as part of the investigation,” she said.
Ski hills, she said, are generally not considered a high-risk industry.
Since 2020, the organization has carried out three inspections on the ski hill. In the three previous years, the organization has carried out five inspections, according to her. Since 2017, WorkSafe has issued four orders: one to make the health and safety committee more balanced between employer and employee, one to provide proper PPE, one to review the COVID-19 plan, and a stop work order related to the machine that caused Thorne’s injuries.
Recovery is a long road
Thorne said one way he is healing from the injury is to speak out. He said people don’t often hear what happens after an accident at work.
The road to recovery has been long so far. He receives a compensation from WorkSafeNB. Soon he may need another surgery to relieve some pressure on his nerves.
The biggest challenge, he said, was not being able to work and be productive.
“If I sit there that long, my brain will just run and run and run… I have a hard time sleeping,” he said.
“Mentally I have healing to do. I don’t have hate. I’m not mentally upset, like, I’m not depressed by the whole situation. But it’s just when I need to shut down.”
Kody Thorne says his partner, friends and family helped him through the recovery process from his injury. (Hadeel Ibrahim/CBC)
To find a career, Thorne first considered becoming a truck driver, but his injury puts that off. Interested in legal matters, he wanted to become a lawyer, but WorkSafeNB wouldn’t cover the cost of getting a degree because it doesn’t match how much he made on the ski hill.
He found his way to arbo. He said his personal experience helps him find motivation. He took the licensing exam last month, he said, and is now awaiting the results.
“If I pass this exam, I would like to stay in it and look for a more field job than an office job,” he said.
Meanwhile, Thorne said he is trying to find a mental health practitioner and is on a waiting list. He said he has many friends and family supporting him as he understands what happened.
“I rely very heavily on my support and network,” he said.
“I’m really big on hosting my friends and family. I like things to be tidy, so when they come over it gives me peace of mind.”
