Worker death leads to $200K fine for Chelmsford contractor
The death of a worker in a construction-site accident will cost a Sudbury-area contractor more than $200,000.
R.M. Bélanger Limited, which operates out of Chelmsford, Ontario, and provides institutional, commercial and industrial construction services, was issued a $210,000-fine in provincial offences court on February 26. The company will also pay a 25-percent victim surcharge.
The incident occurred on September 17, 2018. At the time, the contractor was using the parking lot of a golf course in Sudbury to store wooden telephone poles. That day, a worker was dispatched with a truck and flatbed trailer to pick up a pole for use on a Bélanger construction site.
At the golf course, a Bélanger worker, who was also a supervisor, was working on the site. When the Bélanger truck pulled into the parking lot, that worker offered to load the required pole for the driver.
Using a machine equipped with a fork attachment, the worker picked up a pole and approached the flatbed trailer. The forks were not spread apart as far as possible, creating instability with the pole as the loader moved. The pole was not secured in any way to the forks.
The truck driver was on the flatbed trailer and had placed a long piece of lumber on the trailer to act as a stopper for the pole. The driver was standing on the other side of the lumber from the side of the trailer approached by the loader.
The operator of the loader tilted the forks forward, dropping the pole onto the flatbed. The pole rolled toward the piece of lumber. The pole had a warp in it, and rolled over the piece of lumber.
The driver, standing on the trailer, tried to jump over the rolling pole but was hit by the pole and was knocked off the trailer. The pole rolled off the trailer, inflicting fatal injuries.
Following the trial, R.M. Bélanger Limited was found guilty of two offences: failing to use a safe procedure for loading a pole onto a flatbed trailer; and failing to ensure that no worker was in an endangered position during the loading of a pole onto a flatbed trailer.