Company Fined $150,000 after Guard Is Hit & Killed by a Car and a Truck

A night shift security guard from a temp agency left the building to smoke. The area designated for employees to smoke was in the travel way on the building’s west side. The guard was dressed in dark clothing with no light or reflective components. As he was walking in the travel way, he was struck from behind by a car driven by a worker. After pausing briefly, that worker left the scene. (He’s currently facing trial on criminal charges.) After the car left the scene, a tractor-trailer began to reverse down the travel way. The fallen security guard was caught by the mud flap behind the trailer’s rear tire and was pushed nearly 100 metres along the travel way. His body was discovered beneath a rear trailer wheel. The MOL found that there was no protective barrier or other safeguard to protect pedestrians in the travel way from vehicle traffic and a driver would have had sight-line difficulties for an area behind the trailer. In addition, illumination in the travel way was inadequate to ensure pedestrian visibility. The company pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that no pedestrians were present in an area where illumination was limited and vehicles in the area had sight-line difficulties. The court fined it $150,000 [Marmora Freezing Corp., Govt. News Release, Feb. 23, 2015].