HALIFAX — A former Halifax autobody shop owner has been acquitted of criminal negligence causing the death of a mechanic who was badly burned when a minivan suddenly caught fire as he was using a blowtorch beneath it. Peter Kempton was working under a 1998 Dodge Caravan at Your Mechanic Auto Corner in Dartmouth in September 2013 when it became engulfed in flames. Chipman said the garage had a myriad of safety issues, but none of them led to the poor choices of Kempton, a trained mechanic. The van was being stripped before being scrapped, and Kempton was using an acetylene torch to remove the steel straps holding the gas tank in place. “At the time of his death he was a 58-year-old man with many years experience as a mechanic.

Source: National Post January 11, 2019 19:52 UTC