Bolton company fined $50,000 after worker injured by collapsing structure

720 780 yonge st

Ontario Construction News staff writer

Rafat General Contracting Inc. has been fined $50,000 after a steel structure assembly collapsed at a multi-storey building under renovations. A worker was injured in the incident at 720-780 Yonge St. in Toronto in March 2017.

The company was convicted last March and sentencing delayed until January 11, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following a trial, Rafat General Contracting Inc. was fined $50,000 by Justice Steven R. Clark of the Ontario Court of Justice.

According to a court bulletin, Rafat General Contracting was hired to demolish and dismantle parts of the interior from the third floor down to the basement of the building, and to clean up and remove all debris.

As work was being done in the basement, a horizontal steel beam was in place on what was the ceiling of the basement floor supporting part of the floor of the first floor.

The supervisor of the company noticed the west end of the steel beam was resting on a steel plate on top of the steel column but was not connected. The east end of the beam, however, was connected by bolts to another steel column, court heard.

The supervisor used the bucket of a mini excavator belonging to the company to push the west end of the steel beam and to move it off the steel plate, and then lowered the west end of the beam to the concrete floor below.

The east end of the horizontal beam remained connected to its vertical steel column, which remained in an upright position. Shortly thereafter, the steel assembly collapsed, striking a worker and pinning the worker under the collapsed structure.

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