Fines levied in TTC maintenance worker death

TORONTO—Two supervisors and the company they worked for have pleaded guilty and were fined a total of $133,000 after a fall at a Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) garage resulted in the death of a worker and another suffering broken bones.

According to the Ministry of Labour (MOL), concord-based company Matheson Constructors Ltd. was engaged by the TTC to perform work at the transit company’s Malvern Garage, which includes an automatic bus wash. The garage is located at Sheppard Avenue and Markham Road.

The incident occurred on the morning of August 19, 2013. Two Matheson site superintendents, Phil Lindsay and Karl Jedan, were supervising the task of insulating an overhead water pipe that passes through the garage. The plumbing portions of the project were subcontracted by Matheson to Khider Electromechanical Inc. (KEM) which in turn subcontracted insulating work to Komenda Contracting Corporation, reads the release.

The workers who were carrying out the job received an orientation from superintendent Lindsay at the site. It was the first day on the job for both of them. They then began work insulating the overhead pipes in a mechanical room in the garage, following the pipes into a large garage space.

The MOL states an overhead door in the garage was open.

"The door, upon opening, curved along tracks to rest over an entry bay, allowing the entry of buses into the maintenance area. The workers continued their insulation work until they reached the open overhead door, which blocked their progress," the release reads.

"The workers were working from a self-propelled elevating work platform, commonly referred to as a scissor lift. They were protected from falling by the guardrail of the platform and the wearing of harnesses tethered to the platform."

Shortly after 10 a.m. the two workers approached superintendent Jedan to discuss the overhead door obstacle. They were unable to operate the door.

"A TTC employee had turned the door controls off, and superintendent Lindsay had by that time left the site. The instruction from Jedan was to not touch TTC equipment and to not go near the door, that only TTC personnel could operate mechanical equipment, and that he would make arrangements with the designated TTC inspector," the release continues.

"A supervisor from KEM also spoke to Jedan half an hour later about the same issue. The KEM supervisor was told by Jedan to follow TTC policy and to find the TTC inspector to have the door lowered. The KEM supervisor was unable to locate the TTC inspector so he instructed the workers to continue working away from the door."

At 12:58 p.m. the door was lowered halfway by a TTC employee who was not the designated TTC inspector at the workers’ request. The TTC employee did not lock out the controls to the door and did not consult the designated TTC inspector about the lowering of the door or locking it out.

When the door was lowered, the scissor lift was moved into a position behind the door.

"A few minutes later, a mechanic pushed a cart through the open doorway, triggering an electric eye mechanism on the door and causing it to open. The door struck the scissor lift as it rolled along the overhead track," the MOL describes.

"A TTC employee tried to stop the opening of the door at the time of the incident, but the door did not stop in time when the ‘stop’ button was pushed. The scissor lift was knocked over, with both workers falling to the concrete floor about 20 feet below."

One of the workers suffered blunt head trauma and died several days later. The other suffered broken bones. According to the release, Matheson was required to follow the TTC’s lock-out procedure, as per the terms of the contract. The TTC’s lock-out procedure required that the TTC’s representative authorize and carry out any lock-out of any TTC equipment, including the subject overhead door.

"The TTC employee who lowered the door at the workers’ request did not follow the TTC lock-out procedure," the MOL states.

"Neither Matheson Constructors nor the supervisors, Lindsay and Jedan, ensured that the TTC lock-out procedure was completed."

Lindsay also told a MOL investigator later that lock-out procedures were not discussed with the two workers.

On top of this, there were indications that the door may have been malfunctioning the day the incident occurred. TTC employees had seen the door close on its own without any control input that day, the release states. A couple of weeks previous, TTC workers tried to close the door with the door controls and it would not move.

The court found that Matheson Constructors "failed as a constructor to ensure that the safety of workers was protected, contrary to Section 23(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and fined the company $125,000."

Superintendents Lindsay and Jedan were found guilty of "failing as supervisors to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker, contrary to Section 27(2)(c) of the act — specifically of failing to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that an overhead garage door could not contact an elevated work platform upon which two workers were working."

They were each fined $4,000.