Tractor with no roll bar nets Okanagan orchard WorkSafeBC fine

An Okanagan orchard has been fined $2,500 for not having a roll bar on a tractor and the driver wasn’t wearing their seatbelt.

According to a recently published Aug. 5 WorkSafeBC penalty notice, when inspectors turned up at Beulah Orchards in Summerland, they found the driver not wearing their seatbelt while driving a tractor without a rollover protective system in place.

“The firm failed to ensure its mobile equipment was used with a rollover protective system unless a qualified person had completed a rollover risk assessment and determined there was minimal or no risk of rollover,” the penalty notice read. “The firm also failed to ensure mobile equipment riders used seat belts whenever the equipment was in motion.”

Numerous orchards in the Southern Interior have been fined recently for failing to have seat belts on tractors.

In 2024, Jealous Fruits received a $7,000 fine after a worker died when a tractor rolled over on a Lavington cherry orchard. Early this year, the same company was hit with a $145,000 fine after a worker was seriously injured jumping out of a tractor that began to slip down a steep slope.

In 2024, a Kelowna packinghouse received a $42,500 fine after inspectors found eight out of 14 seatbelts on a work van unusable.

In 2022, WorkSafeBC handed out a $27,000 fine to a Thompson ranch for using a tractor without a seatbelt, and in 2023 a Kelowna orchard was issued a $40,000 fine for failing to have a seatbelt on a tractor.

In Beulah Orchards’ case, WorkSafeBC says the tractor lacking the rollover protective system was a repeated and high-risk violation.