By Andrew de Souza

City fined for OHS violations

Feb 11, 2011 | 5:11 AM

The City of Prince Albert and a contracting group pleaded guilty to several Occupational Health and Safety Violations for two separate occasions and were each fined several thousand dollars.

The court heard the first incident took place on June 20, 2008. Three city workers were involved in working on installing underground pipes and were working in a trench.

During the construction, a truck operated by Rusway Construction backed up to the trench to dump some infill. The truck came within 2 feet of the edge and the weight of the truck caused the trench to partially collapse.

Two of the workers managed to escape completely, but a third was unable to fully escape and only narrowly avoided being buried by escaping into an open pipe way.

“Thankfully his injury was only a scrape,” said Mitch Holash, the lawyer representing the City of Prince Albert during the proceedings.

Imminent need

Council set to discuss possible location for homeless shelter on 15th Street

3h ago

International Spotlight

P.A.'s Howe one of 4 Sask. born players named to Canada's World Junior roster

18h ago

National

Ottawa to remove 30% investment cap for Canadian pension funds

22h ago

“He could have easily been killed by the collapse.”

“Suffice to say, the trench was not done in accordance with regulations and that put three workers in the risk of injury or death.”

The city was fined with failing to report a trench deeper than five meters to OHS. They pleaded guilty and were fined $750 plus a $300 surcharge.

Rusway was fined for several violations as a result of the incident, and fines were $13,180 inclusive of surcharges.

Their lawyer, Ryan Lavoie, said the business was remorseful for the incident and that the staff had been working under the impression that the soil would have supported the truck.

“Rusway has been in business for 25 years and this is the first time they contravened Occupational Health & Safety and they don’t want this to happen again,” he said.

City pleads guilty to later event

The city also pleaded guilty to charges from another incident involving trenches.

On March 30, 2009, city staff were working in a trench when an OHS staff member drove by to inspect the scene.

He decided that the project had insufficient supervision and the city and the site supervisor was charged with several violations.

In the end, the city pleaded guilty and was fined $5,000 plus a $2,000 surcharge. The supervisor was also fined with a total of $310.

Holash said the city has taken the events extremely serious and has since been working with OHS to develop more comprehensive safety plans. As well, they had received third-party safety certification since the incident.

“The city has responded aggressively and constructively,” he said.

adesouza@panow.com