Mount Timothy employee in hospital after workplace accident

A 23-year-old Williams Lake man has suffered serious injuries after both his arms were sucked into a conveyor belt lift mechanism at the Mount Timothy Ski Areanear Lac La Hache last week.

Dylan Pilgrim has already undergone three operations and could be facing a fourth, said Michelle Obre, the mother of his fiance.

"It's just bad damage to his arm," she said.

Pilgrim is the maintenance manager for the ski hill. He was working on the Magic Carpet conveyor belt at the Mount Timothy Ski Area when the accident occurred.

The hill was closed at the time of the accident and the Magic Carpet lift was shut down in the days following. WorkSafeBC has investigated the accident scene but its report has not yet been made public.

"WorkSafeBC received notification on January 18, 2017 at 12:52 p.m. that an incident occurred at the Mount Timothy Ski Area. Our preliminary information indicates a worker was injured while working on a conveyor surface lift and was transferred to hospital," WorkSafeBC wrote in an email to CBC.

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On Dec. 30, 2015, Mount Timothy was cited for 19 safety violations by a WorkSafeBC inspector. Infractions included a lack of a safety program, not having provided for adequate first aid attendants to promptly render first aid to injured workers, not having adequate first aid equipment, allowing staff to snowmobile without helmets, and numerous safety violation around heavy machinery in the hill's shop.

One month later a follow up inspection found the mountain had come into compliance on all 19 orders.

Mount Timothy Ski Area's General Manager, Caroline Sherrer, told CBC, "We are not making any comments about anything."

With files from Daybreak Kamloops