Farm death was 'terrible learning experience,' inquiry says

On January 31, 2014, Stephen Gibson became entangled in some farm equipment and was killed while his employer looked on.

"You never forget it.It has to be something that everyone sees.... It was aterriblelearning experience," Robert Hamilton, fighting back tears,told a two-dayinquiry set up to investigate the death on Monday.

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He said the death has him convincedthatsafety education should be mandatory forboth farm workers and their employers and there should be mandatory compensation for injured employees.

Gibson spent most ofhis life around farms, growingup on a dairy farm inNew Zealandbefore working on several different cattle operations inAustralia, B.C. and Alberta.

He died at the age of 46, four months after starting workon Hamilton's cattleand grain operation northwest of Calgary.

"He mentioned some concerns with how things were being done (safetywise)," Gibson's wife, Joan, told the courtroom in Cochrane.Shecouldn't recall any particular equipment or practices her husbandmight have mentioned.

Entangled in equipment

During his testimony,Hamilton saidthe two men were working togetherprocessing grain on the day of the accident.Theyhad runinto a problem which caused thepower supplytoshut off, so Gibson was manually turning an augertokeepgrain moving.

Hamilton maintains it was safebecause a potentially dangerous nearby piece of equipmentcalled thepower take off, or PTO, was also turnedoff.

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Within a few minutes, for reasons he still doesn't know, Hamilton saysGibson went over to the tractor, firedupthe PTO, then went back to the auger.

"At that point I realized what he was doing, and I yelled at him to get back. He shouldn't have been standing there while the machine was going," said Hamilton

Hamilton said he believes Gibson's jacketgot tangled in the rotating PTO.

"It happened in a split second, but that's how those things happen," he said.

Inquiry

The fatalityinquiry is reviewing the facts to see whether anything can be done to prevent similar deaths and the provincial court judge overseeing it may issuerecommendations.

Hamilton was asked if he's made any changes since Gibson's death.

Hesaid the next day he got ridof the PTO, which was about 40-50years old and lacked the properprotective shielding.

Before Gibson's death, he says his business didn't have any safety procedures in place,he didn't offer or take any safety courses, and everything he knew about safetyhe had learned on the job.

He now holds monthlysafety meetings for staff.

"We'reproactive at trying to make sure we're in a better spot to address safety concerns," said Hamilton.