On the night of March 16, Alain Grenier, a team leader at WestRock had a work accident which injured his foot, but which could have had much more serious consequences, had it not been for the vigilance of a work colleague, François Letendre.
Mr. Letendre, listening only to his courage, undertook a maneuver to save Alain Grenier, whose safety shoe found itself caught in a cable which surrounded his foot, which attracted him towards a machine.
When equipment was stopped to change a part, a rope wrapped around Alain Grenier’s safety shoe, specifies François Letendre. “Alain shouts: my foot! “. He immediately grabbed him to hold him back. “Alain gave a blow, his shoe ripped off and the rope continued before breaking. It was a one-inch cable (…) extremely strong”. They were three in this precise place at this time. The emergency services quickly arrived to provide him with first aid while waiting for the ambulance. We dare not imagine what could have happened, he could have been seriously injured or even died.
Mr. Grenier is slowly recovering from this misadventure, where he had three fractured metatarsals and a dislocated big toe. He is extremely grateful for the gesture of his work colleague, whom he saw again a few days after the accident. Two years from retirement, he will be able to return to work in a few months, once he recovers from his injuries.
Last week, the member for Laviolette-Saint-Maurice, Marie-Louise Tardif underlined this exemplary gesture before the National Assembly. A video was posted on social media, which was widely shared. “In certain circumstances, a person who calls himself ordinary becomes extraordinary and that is exactly what happened on March 16. Thanks to his coolness and his speed of action, François Letendre succeeded in restraining his colleague Alain Grenier preventing him from falling, because his foot was wrapped in a cable in traction and being dragged down to the vat of the paper machine”, mentioned Mrs. Tardif among others.
Mr. Letendre, a Latuquois who is back after twenty years in the Quebec region, has a karma that will place his actions in health and safety. Despite the countless measures put in place to ensure the safety of workers, we are never safe from an accident. In 1994, he witnessed an accident at another factory in La Tuque that cost the life of a co-worker. “I said to myself: it’s not true that it will happen again,” he confides. He has been with WestRock since February 14.
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