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In what should serve as a stark reminder for both employers and individuals, police in Ontario recently charged a corporate employer and two individuals with criminal negligence causing death after a fatal workplace accident at a construction project. On April 16, 2009, the City of Sault Ste. Marie’s Public Works Department was performing sewer work in an approximately three-metre-deep excavation at the city landfill. The city had contracted with 1531147 Ontario Limited, operating as Millennium Crane Rentals, to provide an 80-ton mobile crane and crane operator to assist in placing concrete structures into the excavation.
While all the facts are not publicly known, it appears that the crane fell into the excavation while it was being repositioned. Two city employees were working in the excavation at the time. One employee was pinned across the stomach and pelvis by the crane. He was extricated by the Sault Ste. Marie Fire Service and rushed to a nearby hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries. The second employee was not hurt.
The Ontario Ministry of Labour and the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service investigated the accident. The ministry has now laid five charges under the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), against Millennium Crane, including charges for failing to ensure the crane operator was properly licensed, failing to ensure the crane was maintained in a condition that did not endanger a worker, and failing to ensure that the crane was not defective and/or hazardous. An OHSA charge was also laid against the crane operator for allegedly operating the crane in a manner that endangered himself and other workers.
The maximum fine that could be imposed for each of the OHSA charges laid against Millennium Crane is $500,000, plus the required provincial surcharge. The maximum penalty that could be imposed on the crane operator is a fine of $25,000, plus surcharge, and/or up to 12 months imprisonment.
In addition, following a 10-month investigation, the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service has charged Millennium Crane, the individual crane owner and the crane operator with criminal negligence causing death. This is the first time that an Ontario corporation has been charged this offence since amendments were made to the criminal negligence provisions of the Criminal Code in 2004. Those amendments were designed to make it easier for the Crown to prove criminal negligence against a corporation.
If convicted, each of the individuals charged face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and there is no limit to the fine that could be imposed on Millennium Crane. The first court date for the criminal charges is March 22, 2010.
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