Heavy civil construction company fined $325,000 following worker fatality

TORONTO — Coco Paving was fined $325,000 after a worker was killed when a steel casing rolled while being moved by a forklift.

The incident occurred Nov. 2, 2015 at a road reconstruction project on Highway 7 near Sciberras Road in Markham, Ont. Coco Paving, a Toronto-based heavy civil construction company was charged on Sept. 28 and sentenced Oct. 15.

The company was upgrading watermains buried under Highway 7, part of a larger road-widening project, when the incident occurred.

According to a release issued by the Ministry of Labour, a worker was working alone welding two sections of steel casing on the north shoulder of Highway 7. The total length of the two sections was about 50 feet and weighed about 5,400 pounds.

A forklift approached the steel casing to lift and rotate it in order to complete the weld when the steel casing suddenly became dislodged from its wooden support and started to roll into a six-foot ditch, the release indicates. The casing rolled onto the worker, who became pinned in the ditch under the casing. He later succumbed to his injuries.

Following a trial, the company was fined $325,000 in a Newmarket court by Justice of the Peace Philip Solomon. The court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.