An Alberta road construction company and one if its supervisors will pay $546,000 in fines over a workplace death in Airdrie almost five years ago.
Volker Stevin Contracting and Michael O’Neill — who collectively faced dozens of charges — were each convicted of two occupational health and safety offences in April.
A 38-year-old man was killed in October 2019 while inspecting catch basins with O’Neill in the Windsong neighbourhood. O’Neill was driving a Ford F-550 truck when he ran over the employee, who died at the scene. Court heard he was positioning the truck as a ‘shield’ to protect the job site when the accident occurred.
Justice Jayme Williams, in a written decision posted last week, said the worker’s death could have been avoided had his employer and manager taken the “reasonably practicable” steps necessary to ensure his safety.
The deceased utility labourer, who was married with four children, had immigrated to Canada from Israel in 2017. He had been employed by Volker Stevin for about 36 months.
“While the death of any person on a worksite is tragic and creates emotional and financial complexity for their loved ones, I accept that (the employee’s death) specifically resulted in an added layer of complexity given the fact that he had only weeks prior to his death successfully brought some of his children to Canada,” Williams wrote.
Volker Stevin was fined $400,000, plus a 20 per cent victim fine surcharge, after being found guilty of failing to ensure the health and safety of a worker and allowing a worker to remain within range of moving equipment. O’Neill was fined $66,000, including the surcharge, for failing to ensure the worker’s safety and exposing him to danger from moving equipment.
“He was the manager on a two-man crew and he did not take any steps to ensure that his worker was in a safe location before moving the truck,” Williams wrote.
She noted he had been through a traumatic experience in determining his sentence.
“Mr. O’Neill’s remorse, verging on shame, was palpable and I consider it in mitigation of his sentence.”
The company and O’Neill have 30 days to appeal the sentences.