Charges have been laid in the 2007 death of a University of Calgary student.
Nathan Shair, 22, a then-summer intern at XI Technologies, was fatally hit in the head by a mechanical horse at the company’s Stampede party July 12, 2007.
When a rider kicked the machine a calf would spring out from underneath the horse frame, giving the rider an opportunity to emulate calf roping. Shair was one of three people working when, according to Calgary Police Services, a spring-loaded lever hit him in the head.
Shair died in hospital the next day.
The small software and data company is being charged under the Occupational Health and Safety Act for failing to reasonably ensure the safety of an employee and failing to ensure all work-site equipment operated as intended, according to the Calgary Herald.
Radar Rental’s, the company that supplied the mechanical horse, is being charged with failing to ensure the equipment it supplied was working properly as regulated under the safety code.
The case is now before court.