61 charges laid in fatal 2009 Toronto swing-stage accident

Sixty-one charges have been laid under the Occupational Health and Safety Act against the employer and supplier connected to the 2009 Toronto Christmas Eve swing-stage accident which claimed four worker lives.

staff writer

Ontario’s Ministry of Labour brought the 61 OHSA charges against Metron Construction Corp., Swing “N” Scaff Inc. and the directors of both companies.

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A first court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 30. Both companies face fines of up to $500,000 for each charge and the charges against individuals reach up to $25,000 each and prison sentences of up to 12 months.

In the Dec. 24, 2009 swing-stage tragedy four construction workers plunged 13 storeys to their deaths at a Kipling Avenue apartment restoration work site when a swing-stage they were working on came apart.

A fifth survived the fall, but sustained serious injuries. Vladimir Korostin, Aleksey Blumberg, Alexander Bondorev and Fayzullo Fazilov lost their lives in the accident. The lone survivor was Dilshod Marupov.

Among the charges raised against Metron were ones for failing to comply with ministry orders at the accident site after the accident, during field visits on Dec. 29 and Jan. 7.

Metron was charged nearly 30 times in total as both a constructor and employer. Among the charges are:

Failure to ensure that an outrigger beam was secured against horizontal or vertical movement
Failure to ensure that an outrigger beam had securely attached counterweights designed and manufactured for the purpose
Failure to ensure adequate legible instructions for the use of counterweights were affixed to an outrigger beam
Failure to ensure that a worker on or getting on or off a suspended platform/suspended scaffold wore a full body harness connected to a fall arrest system
Failure to ensure that a suspended platform was maintained in a condition which does not endanger a worker and/or failed to ensure a suspended platform was not used while defective or hazardous
Failure to ensure that a competent worker inspected a suspended platform and/or suspended scaffold operated by mechanical power before each day’s use.
Failure to ensure that a suspended scaffold that consists of more than one platform and every suspended platform that together with its components weighs more than 525 kilograms was erected in accordance with design drawings
Failure to ensure that a worker who was using a fall protection system was adequately trained in its use and given adequate oral and written instructions by a competent person.

Metron was also charged with failing “to take all or any of the following reasonable precautions”, such as:

Obtaining proper documentation and/or information from the supplier of a suspended platform to ensure the safety of workers. Such information includes but is not limited to design drawings and load carrying capacity for the 40-foot suspended platform that collapsed
Ensuring the suspended platform that collapsed was safe for use after discovering a safety issue with another suspended platform of the same type rented from the same supplier – Swing “N” Scaff Inc.

Among the charges against Swing “N” Scaff are:

Failure to ensure that a suspended platform and/or a component thereof supplied to Metron Construction Corporation was in good condition
Failure to ensure that a suspended scaffold and/or a suspended platform that consists of more than one platform and every suspended platform that together with its components weighs more than 525 kilograms was designed by a professional engineer in accordance with good engineering practice.