The Wesbell Group of Technologies Inc., a Toronto telecommunications company, has been fined $200,000 for violations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act after two of its workers were killed in late June.
BURLINGTON, Ont.
The Wesbell Group of Technologies Inc., a Toronto telecommunications company, has been fined $200,000 for violations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) after two of its workers were killed.
On June 28, 2007, two workers from Wesbell entered an underground vault in Oakville to inspect ducts and feed fibre optic cables between manholes. The air in the vault was short of oxygen and the workers quickly passed out, fell into a metre of water at the bottom of the vault and drowned.
A Ministry of Labour investigation found the vault’s oxygen level measured as low as nine per cent, far below the safe level of of 18 per cent to 21 per cent. The workers entered the vault without protective devices or ventilation measures in place for their protection.
The Wesbell Group of Technologies Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that a written plan had been prepared and implemented to protect the workers from the dangers of entering a confined space.
In April, Bell Canada was fined $280,000, the largest fine ever for a federally regulated company over a health and safety violation, under the Canada Labour Code in connection with the death of the two Wesbell workers.
The men who died in the vault were a 33-year-old from Brampton, Ont., who was never publicly identified, and 52-year-old Greg Gauthier of Binbrook, Ont. The two men were working 15 feet below ground.
Oakville Fire Department’s Rope Rescue Unit removed the men from the manhole, but they had no vital signs. The workers were rushed to Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital where they were pronounced dead.
DCN News Services
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