OTTAWA — Aecon Construction Ontario East Limited has been convicted and fined for its role in an incident in which a worker received critical injuries after being hit by a reversing bulldozer.
The incident occurred on Carp Road in Carp, Ont. in June 2018. The conviction was registered Oct. 29, 2020.
On the day in question, a worker and an equipment operator were working as a team on Highway 417 in Ottawa. The worker was tasked with taking elevation readings using a GPS laser and marking out the readings on the ground, while the equipment operator was operating a bulldozer.
At one point the worker taking the readings could not receive a signal for the GPS equipment and attempted to locate a signal by walking to different areas of the site. While doing so the worker was facing west, back to the bulldozer.
The bulldozer’s operator was in the process of back-blading material, a process where the operator pushes material forward and then runs the blade over the material in reverse. The operator placed the bulldozer in reverse, which activated the back-up alarm on the bulldozer, looked over one shoulder and proceeded to reverse after not noticing anyone behind. The back-up alarm could not be heard over the noise of Highway 417 and the worker taking readings was knocked to the ground.
As a result of the contact, the worker suffered critical injuries
A visibility and line-of-sight assessment was conducted by a Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development ergonomist.
The assessment determined that the injured worker would not reasonably have been noticed by the equipment operator while the bulldozer was reversing, and the ability for the operator to view the worker within the rear-view mirror while reversing the bulldozer would have become progressively more obstructed. In such a scenario, a signaller should have been used to assist the equipment operator.
The Ontario Regulation for Construction Projects states that operators of vehicles, machines and equipment shall be assisted by signallers if the operator’s view of the intended path of travel is obstructed or a person could be endangered by the vehicle, machine or equipment or by its load.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act states that an employer shall ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed are carried out in the workplace.
Accordingly, following a guilty plea, Aecon Construction Ontario East Limited, as an employer, was convicted in Ottawa provincial offences court in of failing to ensure that the equipment operator was assisted by a signaller as required by the regulation. Aecon was fined $90,000.
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