Worker died after his dump truck went into the water while unloading at a marine infill site
The Halifax Port Authority has been found guilty of violating the Canadian Labour Code following the death of a worker, according to a report. The sentencing hearing for the Halifax Port Authority is scheduled for July, reported CTV News.
The incident took place in 2018, when 44-year-old driver Michael Wile died after his 10,000-pound dump truck went into the water while unloading at a marine infill site. It’s possible that Wile jumped from the vehicle as it quickly went under, investigators speculate. His body was found near the A. Murray MacKay Bridge before other truckers even knew he was missing.
It took a fleet of tow trucks to pull the dump truck from the Halifax harbor. There was no bump barrier installed or spotter working at site at the time of the incident, according to the report.
In 2020, Sitelogic Construction, the company managing the site for the Port Authority, and its president David Seaboyer pleaded guilty to charges filed by the Labour Department and were fined.
Previously, several other employers were charged for the death of their workers.
Saskatchewan employer Jimlee Farms Ltd. was fined $80,000, including a surcharge of $22,857, after one of its workers was killed on Nov. 19, 2020, when she – a temporary foreign worker from Veracruz, Mexico – was running some feed barley through a mill powered by a tractor.
Alberta employer Northern Services (1978) (High Level) Ltd. was also fined $360,000 for an incident that resulted in a fatal injury to one worker. It happened on Sept. 1, 2020, when a worker was in an excavation installing the bottom section on a septic tank.
Grove RV and Leisure Inc., also of Alberta, was also fined $185,000 for the fatal injury one its workers sustained in the workplace. The incident took place on March 11, 2019, when the worker was towing a tri-axle 5th wheel RV unit with a John Deere tractor.
The City of Humboldt in Saskatchewan was fined $95,000 with a $38,000 surcharge, a total amount of $133,000, following the death of a worker. The incident took place on Sept. 18, 2021, in Humboldt, when a worker was fatally injured after a trench wall collapsed.
Lastly, Ontario Inc. – operating as Truly Green – was fined $70,000 after pleading guilty to violations that led to a critical injury on a worker. On the day of the incident, a worker was asked to clean the irrigation room in the company’s greenhouse in Chatham.
