Convictions of Engineer & Company for Bridge Collapse Overturned on Appeal

A company that provided the design plans and structural components for a support structure holding up a bridge during its construction and the engineer who created these plans were convicted of OHS violations after the bridge collapsed, seriously injuring several workers. But the appeals court overturned their convictions and dismissed the charges against them. The bridge collapse was caused by the failure of falsework. However, there were two falsework systems supporting it and the Crown didn’t prove that the collapse was attributable only or primarily to the system designed by the defendants [Ontario (Ministry of Labour) v. EFCO Canada Co., [2012] O.J. No. 134, Jan. 13, 2012].