A year after the fatal accident, Ministry of Labour alleges negligence
Melissa Sundardas
News Editor
Two construction companies are facing charges from the Ontario Ministry of Labour, following an accident that caused the death of a worker last year on the York University site of the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension project.
Kyle Knox, 24, was crushed to death when a drilling drill rig collapsed onto the front-end loader he operated, at the York construction site October 11, 2011. Five other workers were also injured in the accident.
Brad Ross, executive director of corporate communications for the Toronto Transit Commission, says when companies are under contract to a project owner, those companies are legally responsible for safety on their work sites.
However, Ross says, the TTC takes the safety of the employees of its contractors very seriously.
“Since this tragic incident almost one year ago, the TTC has intensified safety monitoring with all contractors to ensure safety measures are in place to protect workers and the public,” he says.
Ross explains the TTC will prepare a public report this fall, updating the project schedule for the York site of the subway extension project.
Four charges were laid against project contracting company OHL-FCC GP Canada Inc. (1842887 Ontario Ltd.).
Under the Ministry of Labour’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, the company is charged with failing to “design an adequate work platform for the drill by identifying the soil bearing capacity as required by the manufacturer’s specifications for stability,” failing to ensure that a drill rig was operated in accordance with the operator’s manual, failing to ensure that the project was designed and constructed to support or resist all loads, and failing to check that the on-site employer, Advanced Construction Techniques Inc., abided by the Act.
Advanced Construction Techniques Inc. (1793380 Ontario Ltd.) also received four charges. The company is accused of not taking every reasonable precaution in the circumstances to protect workers by failing to design an adequate work platform for the drill rig with the necessary soil bearing capacity.
Advanced Construction Techniques Inc. is also charged with failing to ensure that a drill rig was operated “in accordance with the operator’s manual issued by the manufacturer,” and not ensuring that “every part of a project was designed and constructed to support or resist all loads or forces to which it is likely to be subjected without exceeding the allowable unit stress for each material used.”
The maximum penalty for each conviction is a $500,000 fine.
Representatives from each company are expected to make their first court appearance November 1 at 70 Centre Avenue in Toronto.
