'Just stay still, bud. Help's on the way.' Inquest into AIM death hears details of rescue efforts

William McLeod, an inspector at American Iron & Metal in Saint John, doesn't remember hearing any loud or unusual noises the day Darrell Richards was fatally injured cutting into a pressurized calender roll at the scrapyard nearly two years ago.

He just remembers Richards's cousin Justin saying, "Look at the flock of birds," and seeing the sky "dark," "just filled with stuff."

As McLeod wondered to himself, "Are these birds?" the debris "just kept coming. It was falling down to the ground."

"And then Justin right away said, 'Anybody got eyes on Darrell?'"

McLeod rushed to the scene and found the 60-year-old contractor lying on the ground. He called out his name and shook his arm as he checked him over for injuries and called 911.

Richards sat up and grabbed his hand to get up. "I thought he was going to break my hand," said McLeod. "Darrell was a very strong man."

"I said, 'Darrell, you've been in an accident. … Just stay still bud. Help's on the way.'"

McLeod's testimony was one of several a coroner's inquest heard this week about the dramatic efforts June 30, 2022, to save the life of Richards.

McLeod had "no idea what happened, what was going on," but saw Richards's jeans were torn and that he was bleeding from his groin area. 

"I ripped my shirt off to plug the hole [and] put pressure there," and asked another employee who came over to lean on him to keep from getting up, he said.

Richards had been working alone, attempting to strip cotton material from the calender roll — a 24,000-kilogram cylinder of steel used in paper production, so it could be chopped up and recycled, the inquest heard.

These rolls are typically lined with 13,000 to 15,000 pounds of cotton sheets, which are compressed under as much as 2,600 tonnes of pressure.

Richards was sitting on the roll when he cut into it with a circular saw. The inquest saw a short security video showing the sudden release of energy that wounded Richards and sent pieces of the blue material flying high in the air and scattering across the west side facility.

The jury recommended changes in safety, communication, purchasing and inspection to try to prevent future deaths or injuries.