Paving company fined $325,000 for worker fatality

Worker killed by rolling steel casting

A paving company in Toronto has been fined $350,000, plus a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge, for the fatality of a worker in 2015.

Coco Paving Inc.'s worker succumbed to injuries after steel casting, while being moved by a forklift, rolled, pinning the worker in the ditch underneath the casting on Nov. 2, 2015.

The company was convicted Sept. 28, 2018 and was sentenced on Oct. 15, 2018. 

The worker was working alone welding two sections of steel casing on the north shoulder of Highway 7 (near Sciberras Road in Markham, Ont.). The total length of the two sections was about 50 feet and weighed about 5,400 pounds. A wheel loader with forks attached (a forklift) approached the steel casing to lift and rotate the casing to complete the weld. The steel casing suddenly became dislodged from its wooden support and started to roll into a six-foot ditch.

The 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge imposed on Coco Paving is required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Source: Ontario Ministry of Labour