Worker fatally injured at a road widening project
Ontario employer Fourwinds Construction Inc. has been fined $130,000 following the death of one worker.
Following a guilty plea in the Provincial Offences Court in Newmarket, the employer was also tasked to pay 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.
The incident happened at a road widening construction project on Rutherford Road on Aug. 31, 2023.
Three workers employed by the company were installing a headwall, a wall of concrete with a hole near the middle that frames the outlet of a drainage pipe or culvert.
As they attempted to fit the headwall to the pipe, the workers determined the excavation site was not wide enough to align the headwall, requiring further digging.
To clear the area for digging, the excavator operator moved the headwall and placed it in an upright position. Workers removed the chain sling from the excavator boom and attached the digging bucket.
While excavating to fit the headwall, the excavator bucket contacted the headwall, causing it to tip. It fatally injured a worker.
“Fourwinds Construction Inc. failed to ensure a headwall was stored in a way that did not endanger a worker, as required by section 37(1) of Regulation 213/91, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act,” said the Ontario government.
