A construction supervisor was fined $30,000 after pleading
guilty to charges under the Occupational Health and Safety
Act.
The supervisor admitted to failing to ensure that workers wore
fall protection and followed a work procedure for safely cutting
and removing concrete from a bridge deck.
The Ministry of Labour, in its press release, states that,
"While workers were removing concrete panels from the bridge a
section of the deck began to collapse. A worker fell and a
collapsing concrete panel fell on top of the worker. The worker was
killed."
The Ministry also notes that the supervisor had been provided
with a copy of an engineered procedure for safely cutting and
removing concrete from the bridge deck in order to maintain its
structural integrity and prevent collapse. However, this procedure
had been violated. Furthermore, the workers exposed to a fall
hazard while dismantling the bridge had not been wearing fall
protection.
