Ontario Construction News staff
VanHeughten Contractors Inc., a small construction company based in Delhi, and the company’s director, Kyle VanHeughten were fined a total of $117,500 after a worker was fatally injured on an Aylmer worksite.
According to the court report, the worker fell approximately five metres from a roof.
VanHeughten Contractors Inc. “failed to ensure the measures and procedures prescribed under section 26.1(2) of Regulation 213/91 were carried out in the workplace, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act”. Kyle VanHeughten failed, as a director of VanHeughten Contractors Inc., failed to take “all reasonable care to ensure that the corporation complied with section 26.1(2) of Regulation 213/91 contrary to section 32(a) of the Act.”
The fall happened on March 4, 2022 and following guilty pleas in provincial offences court in St. Thomas, VanHeughten Contractors Inc. was fined $85,000 and Kyle VanHeughten was fined $32,500 by Justice of the Peace Susan E. Whelan. Crown Counsel were Neil Dietrich and Daniel Kleiman.
An investigation showed that four workers were installing wooden roof trusses on a construction project in Aylmer. The trusses were being installed on top of framed walls. No guardrail protection was present, nor were any of the workers wearing any other method of prescribed fall protection equipment. None of the workers were wearing any protective headwear.
One worker was reportedly standing on a two-by-four inch wood strapping while nailing wood with a cordless framing nailer when the strapping broke and the worker fell 5.08 meters from the roof and was struck by the nailer, causing fatal injuries.
By failing to ensure that the worker was protected by a means of fall protection, VanHeughten Contractors Inc failed, as an employer, to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed under section 26.12) of Regulation 213/91 were carried out in the workplace, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The court reported that Kyle VanHeughten, as a director of VanHeughten Contractors Inc., failed “to take all reasonable care” to ensure that the corporation complied with section 26.1(2) of Regulation 213/91 contrary to Section 32(a) of the Act.