A Chatham-Kent demolition and excavating company has been fined after a workplace fatality nearly two years ago.
James Curran Expert Removal and Excavating Limited has been fined $70,000 after a worker died in July 2021 when they fell from an upper level of a building that was being demolished.
According to a Ministry of Labour Court Bulletin, the company failed to ensure that the worker was properly protected by a method of fall protection of a fall more than three meters, according to the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The company was convicted and fined on April 3, 2023 following a guilty plea in the Chatham-Kent Provincial Offences Court in Blenheim.
The court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge.
The Bulletin stated that James Curran Expert Removal and Excavating Limited was working on a demolition of an old building that was previously used as a grain silo, which was a two-storey steel framed building with metal cladding.
The structure of the building being demolished had several different platforms of various heights and at the time of the incident, the worker was on a platform that had holes in the floor and unguarded openings around three sides, approximately 7.62 metres above the ground.
The worker working off a ladder and was using a torch to cut pieces of the steel structure, and while making a cut a piece of the structure fell and hit the platform, causing the worker to fall of the ladder over the edge of the platform and to the ground below.
According to the Ministry, the worker was not protected by any method of fall protection suffered fatal injuries.
It was determined that the company failed to ensure that where a worker is exposed to a fall of over three metres, and it is not practicable to install a guardrail, the worker shall be adequately protected by a method of fall protection.