The charges are possible under the rarely used law passed in 2004 to establish criminal liability of corporations for workplace deaths and injuries. It’s called the Westray law
More than 12 years after a pipe layer was crushed to death by a collapsing trench wall on a Burnaby city sewer project, the foreman on that job is being tried for manslaughter.
If convicted, David John Green faces a jail or prison sentence. His employer, J. Cote Excavating of Langley, which is facing a criminal negligence charge in the trial, could be fined.
A second pipe layer, Thomas Richer, who was seriously injured in the October 2012 collapse, said he brought concerns to Green about a gap he noticed in the retaining wall, according to the opening statement in the trial by Crown prosecutor Louisa Winn.
Richer also noticed the soil was “changing to a sandier texture and the ground was beginning to fall away, sloughing,” said Winn.
But the work wasn’t stopped and Richer was told they “just needed to keep going to get past this,” Winn told court.
About 10 minutes later, Jeff Caron, 28, was pinned against the trench wall by the collapsed retaining wall, and died of his injuries.
“The wall collapsed … and the collapsed wall is the reason we are here today,” Winn told the B.C. Supreme Court trial.
Other employees tried to use machinery to remove the wall. Richer, who wasn’t as close to the wall, managed to get out. A third employee, who had been in the trench before the collapse to retrieve a tool, escaped being a victim by minutes, court heard.
Richer, the first prosecution witness, is expected to be on the stand for four days.
The trial is scheduled for 29 days.
The charges are possible under the rarely used law passed in 2004 to establish criminal liability of corporations for workplace deaths and injuries. It’s referred to as the Westray law after a 1992 explosion in the Westray coal mine in Nova Scotia in 1992. Despite employees, the union and government inspectors raising safety concerns before the deadly blast there, a police investigation and a public inquiry, no one was held accountable for the deaths.
It’s only the third time the law has been used in a prosecution, according to Canadian Occupational Safety’s online magazine.
In an article on the trial, it said the law was designed to target negligence at all levels of an organization, from front-line supervisors to corporate executives, and is being closely watch by workplace safety professionals. It said raises questions about the role of engineering oversight in construction safety and the division of responsibility among supervisors, engineers and corporate leadership.
The company’s owner, J. Cote, is represented by his own lawyer and was in the public gallery for part of the trial on Monday.
J. Cote Excavating was the primary contractor on the job and had been brought on by Vector Engineering, the primary consultant on the project.
