Inquest into deaths of swing stage victims postponed

TORONTO – The inquest into the deaths of the victims of the 2009 Christmas Eve swing stage collapse in Toronto has been postponed.

Fayzullo Fazilov, 31, Alexsandrs Bondarevs, 24, Vladimir Korostin, 40 and Aleksey Blumberg, 38 died Dec. 24, 2009 from multiple injuries sustained when they fell from scaffolding at a construction site in Toronto. The workers were doing balcony repairs on a highrise when the swing stage they were working on collapsed.

A fifth worker, Dilshod Marupov, was seriously injured after he hung on to the broken swing stage and then fell.

The project manager, Vadim Kazenelson, was holding onto a balcony when the swing stage gave way. He was charged with four counts of criminal negligence causing death and one count of causing bodily harm. He was also sentenced to serve three-and-a-half years in jail. He appealed the decision but the Court of Appeal upheld it. According to court documents, Kazenelson knew fall protection measures were not being used at the time of the incident.

The inquest was scheduled to begin Nov. 30. The announcement to postpone was made Nov. 27 by Dr. Richard Wells, regional supervising coroner for Central Region, Toronto West Office.

An inquest is mandatory under the Coroners Act.