After a dramatic and tragic incident in which a large drill rig fell over at York University, fatally injuring a backhoe operator and badly injuring an excavator operator, the company that owned and operated the rig has been found guilty of an offense under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The court described the company as “reputable and responsible”, showing that even safety-oriented companies can be found guilty of OHSA offences if they do not have rigorous processes in place to ensure safety and avoid accidents.
The accident took place in October 2011 on the TTC subway extension project at the university.
The court held that the company had failed to ensure that the soil base under the drill rig was capable of safely supporting the weight of the large drill rig.
The Ministry of Labour called a “world-renowned” engineer, who was an expert in soil conditions, to testify. He testified that the most likely reason that the drill rig fell over was that the pressure that the drill rig exerted on the ground exceeded the weight-bearing capacity of the ground.
The court further found that there was no evidence that the company took any steps to confirm that the platform on which the drill rig was operated could support the drill rig in accordance with its specifications for stability, and no record of the company confirming that the ground had been prepared sufficiently to support the rig.
The company has not yet been sentenced for the offence, so the fine is not yet known.
Ontario (Ministry of Labour) v. Advanced Construction Techniques Ltd., 2016 ONCJ 482 (CanLII)
