10-storey fall prompts $60K fine
A construction company has been fined $60,000 after a worker fell from the top of a 10-storey apartment building in Peterborough more than a year ago and suffered critical injuries.
Pro Renovations Solutions Inc. at 11-4040 Creditview Rd., Suite 193 in Mississauga was convicted Monday in Provincial Offences Court in Peterborough for failing to comply with provincial construction safety rules by not installing a required guardrail.
The 26-year-old man, who has not been identified, lost balance at the roof edge while doing repairs on the roof of the apartment building at 909 Clonsilla Ave. around 4:15 p.m. on Nov. 1, 2016.
The worker was not protected by any form of fall protection while on the roof, according to the Ministry of Labour.
The worker survived the plunge after landing on the concrete roof of the apartment building’s parking garage.
An Ornge air ambulance helicopter made a dramatic landing a half hour later on clear ground behind the apartment building and rushed the injured worker to the trauma unit of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto for treatment, where he recovered.
The $60,000 fine was handed down by Justice of the Peace Peter J. Hiscox after a prosecution by Crown counsel Jai Dhar. There is a $15,000 victim fine surcharge on top of the fine that will go to a provincial government fund to assist victims of crime as required under the Provincial Offences Act.
Several Pro Renovations Solutions employees were setting up a swing stage on the roof of the building. Another employee went to the roof to bring a wrench to the workers who were setting up the swing stage. That worker was not protected by any form of fall protection while on the roof, the release states.
After giving the wrench to a coworker, the worker went to another part of the roof to assist others, lost balance at the edge of the roof and fell 10 storeys to the ground below, the release states
Pro Renovations Solutions was later charged with failing as an employer to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed by Section 26.1(2) of Ontario Regulation 213/91 (the Construction Projects Regulation) were carried out at the workplace, contrary to Section 25(1) (c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Section 26.1(2) states that “if it is not practicable to install a guardrail system ... a worker shall be adequately protected” by one of the following fall protection methods: a travel restraint system; a fall restricting system; a fall arrest system or a safety net, the release states.