Construction Company Fined $150,000 for Roadside Fatality

At a water main installation project, a signaler and a police officer were directing traffic. A traffic control plan was in place, which included traffic cones. An equipment operator moving a portable toilet proceeded to travel in live traffic to an intersection. He stopped on the shoulder of the road and communicated with the signaler, who replied that assistance would be available to stop traffic when he wanted to move the vehicle back out again. The operator saw that traffic was stopped by the police officer and signaler. So without contacting the signaler again and after briefly checking visually to one side of the vehicle, he moved forward around the corner toward the intended drop-off spot. But the equipment ran over and fatally injured a worker. The MOL determined that the equipment operator didn’t use the assistance of the signaler when moving forward. In addition, the operator either couldn’t see or didn’t look in the direction of the deceased worker or communicate with workers before moving forward. The construction company pleaded guilty to violating the Construction Projects Regulation and was fined $150,000 [Varcon Construction Co. Ltd., Govt. News Release, Feb. 10, 2016].