March 21, 2019 4:55 P.M.
Convicted: Cobra Float Services Inc., 450 Bowes Road, Ste. #5 and #6, Concord, Ontario.
Location of Workplace: A construction site near James Potter Road, west of Creditview Road, Brampton, Ontario.
Description of Offence: A worker was killed when a machine that was being off-loaded from a float trailer overturned.
Date of Offence: May 25, 2013.
Date of Sentence: March 19, 2019.
Penalty Imposed:
- Following a trial, an appeal by the Crown and conviction by the appeal judge in Brampton court on October 12, 2018, the company was fined $85,000 by Judge Ronald Minard; Crown Counsel Wes Wilson.
- The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
Background:
- On May 25, 2013 a worker was off-loading a curb machine at a construction site. The curb machine’s left rear wheel was offset to near the middle of the machine, to accommodate the laying of the curb concrete.
- The float trailer (a heavy-equipment mover) that was being used had ramps which could support the three other wheels, but there was a space between the ramps.
- As the machine was being backed off the float trailer, the offset wheel dropped into the gap between the ramps. The machine overturned and the worker off-loading the machine was crushed and killed.
- The employer ought to have provided a trailer with a continuous ramp across the whole width of the trailer, or provided and ensured that the worker used a portable ramp that could be secured in place between the trailer ramps.
- No spotter was used, the curb machine’s controls were set to “auto” (meaning it would attempt to level itself with any change in surface height), and the height of the machine was set 10 inches higher than recommended, which increased the height of its centre of gravity and made it less stable.
- The company failed to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed by section 37(1) of Ontario Regulation 213/91 (the Construction Projects Regulation) were carried out in the workplace, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The regulation states that “material or equipment at a project shall be stored and moved in a manner that does not endanger a worker.”
- In this case, a curb machine was moved at a project in a manner that endangered a worker.