TORONTO — A Toronto construction firm has been fined $150,000 after a worker fell from the roof of a building at a jobsite in Hamilton, Ont. and was killed by the fall.
The incident occurred Oct. 15, 2018. Welldone Inc., a company that specializes in restoration work, was working on a 13-storey residential building located at 57 Forest Ave. in Hamilton.
Restoration work was being performed from a suspended swing stage. According to a court bulletin, the worker was not protected by a guardrail or travel restraint system as required by law.
The conviction was handed down Oct. 1, 2020 following a guilty plea in provincial offences court in Hamilton by Justice of the Peace Patrice Valeriano.
According to the bulletin, the project consisted of the restoration of balconies on the building. The repair work on two wings had been completed and the incident occurred during the set up for work to be performed on the third of fourth wings.
The two workers on the rooftop at the time of the incident were not wearing any fall protection equipment and were not otherwise protected from the hazard of falling off the edge of the building. The workers were marking measurements to indicate the new location for a beam to support the suspended swing stage, states the release, adding one worker was on hands and knees and held and watched the live end of the measuring tape. The other worker took the zero end of the measuring tape and walked away towards the end of the wing to mark the location of the beam.
The worker on hands and knees saw the measuring device continue beyond the expected distance and yelled for the co-worker to stop but the co-worker screamed while falling off the edge of the building. The co-worker was pronounced dead at the project by a regional coroner.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) and Regulation 213/91 applies to construction projects and protecting workers on a project. One such requirement is section 26.1(2) which states a worker must be protected from falling when working at a height of more than three metres.
Various fall protection methods can be used to protect a worker, however, the defendant failed to ensure a worker was protected by a means of fall protection outlined is section 26.1(2) and thereby violated section 25(1)c of the OHSA.
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