The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
The community owes a debt of gratitude to the work of the jury that made 24 recommendations to make mining safer in Ontario at the inquest into the deaths of two Vale workers. Presiding coroner Dr. David Eden said the issues surrounding the deaths of Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram were complex and of great concern to the community.
The “very well-considered and essential questions” and “thoughtfulness and thoroughness” of the recommendations displayed the highest level of dedication and commitment on the part of the three women and one man who sat on the jury, said Eden.
A fifth juror had to drop out a week into the two-week inquest because of medical reasons. Eden read the recommendations Thursday at the Sudbury Courthouse. “The community that you represent here should be proud of your work,” Eden told the jury.
The jury answered five basic questions that are at the heart of every coroner’s inquest. They determined that Chenier, 35, and Fram, 26, were involved in an accident and were presumed to have died June 8, 2011, about 10 p.m. The men were pronounced dead by the attending coroner early the morning of June 9.
Chenier, who was Fram’s supervisor, died of smothering and compressional asphixia with blunt-force injuries due to a run of muck in an underground mine.
Fram, a miner, died of smothering and compressional asphixia.
The inquest heard during eight days of testimony that workers who were on the scene at the time of the run-of-muck accident tried to scoop away tons of rock, gravel, water and slimes by hand in frantic efforts to free their colleagues.
Eden praised coroner’s counsel Susan Bruce and Roberta Bald, and representatives of others with standing at the inquest for their participation.
“The persons with standing provided substantial and, in my opinion, exemplary assistance to this process by shedding light on different perspectives and ensuring the evidence was fully and fairly” presented and understood, said Eden.
For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.thesudburystar.com/2015/05/08/community-should-be-proud-of-jurys-work-coroner-n-inquest-members-were-thoughtful-and-thorough-he-says