According to Suncor, on January 6, 2022 at the Suncor base plant mine, one heavy haul truck rear-ended a second heavy haul truck while they were both driving up a mine haul ramp.

The two workers in the moving haul truck that was struck from behind were taken to hospital and released with minor injuries.

The driver of the other heavy haul truck did not survive.

Suncor is also reporting two separate operational incidents that occurred in the second half of December 2021.

One was at the Syncrude Mildred Lake mine where failures occurred in the chains driving the two crushers.

The second incident occurring at their Firebag location, where two critical furnaces tripped due to frozen air louvers, leading to the shutdown of approximately 170 wells.

These two incidents at Mildred Lake and Firebag negatively impacted production by approximately 195,000 barrels per day.

“I am deeply saddened by the fatality at our base plant mine. This, along with the operational incidents we experienced in December are not acceptable. Further work is required to keep our workers safe and ensure we are consistently reliable, particularly in extreme weather conditions,” said Mark Little, president and chief executive officer.

“I am deeply disappointed by these events and I am committed to implementing corrective actions, continuing to strengthen our processes and accountability, and to improving Suncor’s performance.”