WINDSOR, ONT. – Dayus Roofing Inc. of Windsor, Ont. has been convicted and fined for a 2015 incident in which a worker died after falling from a roof.
A Ministry of Labour media report recounts that workers employed by Dayus Roofing were replacing shingles on the roof of a house on Menard Street in Windsor. One of the workers was collecting old shingles for disposal into a garbage dumpster located at the ground level.
It was determined that all the workers on the roof that day were wearing fall protection equipment consisting of a harness attached via a lanyard to safety lines and anchor points on the roof. All of them had also been trained and tested in the use of fall protection.
A ministry investigation determined the young worker was crossing the roof, a distance of approximately 18 metres, to dispose of materials into the dumpster and apparently detached the lanyard from the work zone safety line and reattached it to the safety line that traversed the roof.
On one occasion while traversing the roof the young worker did not reattach the lanyard to the safety line. It is believed the worker lost footing and fell to the ground below, sustaining severe injuries. The worker was hospitalized for over six months, never regaining consciousness, and subsequently died.
Dayus Roofing Inc. pleaded guilty to the offence of failing, as an employer, to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed by section 26.1(2) of Ontario Regulation 213/91, the Construction Projects Regulation, were carried out in the workplace. This requires an employer to adequately protect workers with a guardrail system or with another fall protection method such as a travel restraint system, a fall restricting system or a fall arrest system. This failure was contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
On July 17 Dayus Roofing was fined $90,000 in Provincial Offences Court in Windsor by Justice of the Peace Susan Whelan.
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