Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development
Convicted: Coco Paving Inc., a heavy-construction company, 949 Wilson Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.
Location of Worksite: A project located between Old Rail Line and Carlan Drive in Port Perry, Ontario.
Description of Offence: An excavator came into contact with energized wires when its boom was lifted; workers were present.
Date of Offence: February 8, 2018.
Date of Conviction: November 6, 2019.
Penalty Imposed:
- Following a guilty plea, Coco Paving Inc., was fined $50,000 in provincial offences court in Whitby by Justice of the Peace John MacDonald; Crown Counsel Indira Stewart.
- 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:
- Coco Paving Inc. was retained by the Regional Municipality of Durham to supply and install a sanitary forcemain, which is an underground waste pipe used to move waste to a sewage plant.
- On February 8, 2018, a worker employed by Coco Paving Inc., was working at the project on the northwest corner of Simcoe and Kellett Streets in Port Perry. The worker was in the process of retrieving material with an excavator.
- A co-worker was working at connecting a section of forcemain to the excavator so that it could be moved.
- After the material was connected, the excavator operator raised the boom of the excavator, causing the excavator to come into contact with overhead energized conductors
- No one was injured as a result of the incident.
- On the day before the incident (February 7) the employer assigned a signaller or “spotter” to assist around overhead energized conductors. However, on February 8th no signaller or “spotter” was present to observe the movements of the excavator.
- Section 25(2)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act requires an employer to provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker, to protect the health or safety of the worker. On February 8, 2018, Coco Paving Inc. failed as an employer to provide information to a worker regarding who was assigned to act as a signaller for an excavator, contrary to section 25(2)(a) of the act.
- The company has three prior health and safety convictions, two of them fatalities; one of the convictions is currently under appeal.