Employer, cart supplier share blame in worker's death: Crown

The Crown says both the employer of a young construction worker stripping nails on the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital site, and the supplier of the table cart that crushed him, are responsible for his death.

“This tragic death was preventable,” Crown prosecutor Buffy Rodgers said Thursday during her closing arguments at the Occupational Health and Safety trial that began in August 2019.

A Pilosio SPA table cart, supplied by Pilosio Canada, collapsed on 21-year-old Eric Ndayishimiye while he was working on the ground floor of the Saskatoon hospital on July 21, 2016.

Court heard the cart, used for horizontal pouring of concrete slabs, fell when Ndayishimiye's co-worker removed two locking pins and tried moving the cart by himself.

The men's employer, Alberta-based subcontractor Banff Constructors Ltd., is charged under the OHS Act with failing to make arrangements for the use, transport and handling of trolleys in a manner that protects the health and safety of workers, and failing to provide information, instruction, training and supervision necessary for that protection.

Pilosio Canada is charged with failing to ensure, insofar as is reasonably practicable, that any plant supplied by the supplier to any owner, contractor, employer or worker for the use in, or at, a place of employment, is safe when used in accordance with the instructions provided by the supplier and complies with the requirements.

Rodgers argued that Pilosio knew the table cart was being sent to Saskatoon from Alberta, and had a duty to provide further training for those workers.

She said instead, employees were working off instructions that were “woefully inaccurate” when it came to safety.

As the supplier, Pilosio is legally obligated to provide instructions

This tragic death was preventable.

that ensure safe use of its cart, Rodgers said.

Banff's engineering expert testified that employees made their own pins to lock and move the cart because it was missing “travel stops” that would prevent instability.

He found the accident was caused by a design flaw, not the field-fabricated pins.

Pilosio's expert testified that failing to have a travel stop pin in the cart led to the accident.

Representing Pilosio Canada, Jonathan Frustaglio said his client did not design or manufacture the cart, but pointed to evidence that the cart is “absolutely safe” when used properly.

Pilosio supplied the cart to Graham Construction — the prime contractor — which then gave it to Banff Constructors. Frustaglio argued Pilosio should not be held responsible for the negligent actions of an unauthorized, third-party company.

Banff 's lawyer, David Myrol, said his client was following Pilosio's instructions, and departing from doing so would “cause a chorus of raising of eyebrows.”

Rodgers said Banff Constructors, and not Graham Construction, was charged because the subcontractor had the greatest control over training its employees on safe use and handling, but instead allowed them to use extensions and make their own pins.

“It was an attitude of not really taking care about how (these modifications) would have an impact on its operation,” Rodgers said.

Judge Brent Klause has reserved his possible decision for Aug. 14.