Almost three years after a workplace accident claimed the life of a worker in Markham, the paving company overseeing the project has pleaded guilty and been fined $125,000.
On August 27th, 2014, a crew of workers with Vaughan Paving Ltd. were preparing to install curbs and sidewalks at a strip mall on Bullock Dr., when a piece of equipment being used to level the area reversed and hit a worker.
A supervisor witnessed the accident unfolding, and despite efforts to alert those involved, the worker was struck and injured.
The worker would later die in hospital.
An investigation by an engineer from the Ministry of Labour revealed inadequate safety measures, including the absence of a second person to watch the operator’s blind spots in consideration of the absence of an actual alarm that would signal reversal.
The defendant’s failure to have a signaler assisting the operator of the equipment meant that it failed to comply with both the Ontario Construction Projects Regulation and the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Vaughan Paving Ltd. received a fine of $125,000 from Justice of the Peace Herbert B. Radtke in a Newmarket court on Monday.
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.