A Bampton-based contractor has been fined $150,000 for its role in an incident that led to the death of a worker on a construction site in Caledon in January 2019.

Graham Bros. Construction Ltd. pled guilty to charges failing as a constructor to ensure that a signaller was in full view of an excavator operator. The company was convicted of the charge by a Justice of the Peace on November 9.

The incident happened on a project at the intersection of King Street and Heart Lake Road in Caledon, Ontario. The job consisted of the resurfacing of a portion of King Street, including watermain repairs.

On January 14, 2019, three workers from Graham Bros. were laying water pipe in the bottom of a trench to connect a concrete catch basin.

One of the workers was operating a hydraulic excavator at grade and was levelling the earth in the bottom of the trench with the excavator bucket.

A second worker was acting as a signaller and using hand signals to guide the excavator worker. A third worker, or "pipe layer" was standing at the top of the trench to one side.

The placement of the excavator's bucket and boom were centred on the trench and almost fully obstructed the operator's view of the trench wall, the catch basin and the second worker although the operator could see the second worker's hand signals.

While a bucket of earth was being removed, the second worker was struck by the excavator bucket and was pinned between the bucket and catch basin.

The third worker and an off-duty police officer who was hired by the company to direct traffic became aware of the event and called emergency medical services. The injured worker was taken to hospital and succumbed to the injuries.