Ontario Construction News staff writer
A Cambridge construction company has been fined $150,000 after a worker was injured when he fell from the bucket of a front-end loader.
Regional Sewer and Watermain Ltd. pleaded guilty in provincial offences court in Kitchener to one count of failing to ensure a worker does not use a bucket as a work platform.
The incident happened on Nov. 3, 2021. A crew was working on a project on Myers Road in Cambridge and a crew supervisor told the crew to remove a decommissioned hydro service to a building.
The foreman asked an equipment operator to bring a front-end loader over to the building. The foreman then stepped into the bucket and signalled for the operator to raise the bucket so he could cut the wires to the hydro service.
When the foreman was finished cutting the wires, they recoiled and caused the foreman to lose his balance and fall out of the bucket to the ground below.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act states that workers are prohibited from using the bucket of a front-end loader as a work platform.
The company failed to ensure that the worker did not use the bucket as a work platform and was fined $150,000. A victim fine surcharge of 25 per cent was also imposed by the court.
