injury to Peterson's head was
consistent with the position of
reaching for the slips. As a result,
the company was convicted of
both offences and fined a total of
$400,000.
Precision Drilling appealed the
convictions to the Alberta Court
of Queen's Bench. It argued it met
all industry standards and legisla-
tive requirements and it couldn't
have been expected to have de-
vices in place that were recently
developed and not mandated
for use. In addition, the company
had a good safety record and took
safety seriously — the rig man-
ager even had a discussion with
Peterson about trapped torque
before the accident.
The court found that there
was no clear cause for Peterson's
fatal injuries, because no-one
witnessed them and no-one
could say for sure what exactly
caused them — only theories.
The court also found that the
interlock device used by Preci-
sion's competitor and the devices
the company developed after the
accident were designed to spe-
cifically stop trapped table torque
from building up and being re-
leased unexpectedly, but there
were other types of torque that
could develop as well. There was
no evidence trapped table torque
actually caused the injury, said
the court.
"In any event, using the es-
sence of the Crown's expert
witness' opinion about torque,
anyone would understand that
resistance while drilling could
be caused, not only by the bit on
the bottom, but by contact with
the wellbore, especially when the
wellbore was in a lazy S forma-
tion," said the court. "In addition
to contact with the wellbore,
there was evidence that torque
could be created in other ways;
for example, the rig manager
indicated that a mud motor can
cause torque."
The court determined that
the trial judge erred in finding
that Precision Drilling had not
proven that it had done every-
thing reasonably practicable to
avoid Peterson's death, since the
evidence didn't support a spe-
cific cause. Without that specific
cause, it couldn't be determined
that the company didn't do ev-
erything it could. In fact, since
the cause of the accident was so
difficult to determine, the com-
pany couldn't be expected to
know what it could have done to
avoid it, said the court.
The court also noted that the
government allowed Precision
Drilling to keep drilling and trip-
ping out without an interlock
device after a one-day stoppage
of work, indicating there were
no concerns the company wasn't
following safety standards and
the use of interlock devices
wasn't required. In addition, the
procedure of floorhands enter-
ing the rotary table area to re-
move slips didn't change, even
though that's what Peterson was
doing when he was killed.
The court overturned the
conviction of Precision Drilling
on both charges, finding the trial
judge misinterpreted the evi-
dence. A new trial on the charges
was ordered.
For more information see:
• R. v. Precision Drilling, 2016
CarswellAlta 1774 (Alta. Q.B.).
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CSR | November 2016 | News
Appeal < pg. 5
Cause of accident not known for sure
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Without a specific cause of the accident,
it couldn't be determined that the company
didn't do everything it could to avoid it.
