An Ottawa contractor has been fined $90,000 by a justice of the peace for an accident that led to a worker’s critical injuries.

Aecon Construction Ontario East Limited pled guilty on October 29 to charges of failing to ensure that a bulldozer operator was assisted by a signaller as required by the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

The incident occurred on at the company’s worksite on Highway 417 between Maitland Avenue and Island Park Drive in Ottawa on June 11, 2018.

A worker and an equipment operator were working as a team on a part of the highway project. The worker was taking elevation readings using a GPS laser and marking out the readings on the ground, while the equipment operator was operating a bulldozer.

The worker taking the readings could not receive a signal for the GPS equipment and tried to find a signal by walking to different areas of the site. While doing so, the worker’s back was facing the bulldozer.

The bulldozer's operator was in the process of back-blading material, a process where the operator pushes material forward and then runs the blade over the material in reverse. The operator placed the bulldozer in reverse (which activated the back-up alarm on the bulldozer) looked over one shoulder and proceeded to reverse after not noticing anyone behind. The back-up alarm could not be heard over the highway noise.

The worker taking readings was knocked to the ground.

The bulldozer operator noticed two survey workers running toward the bulldozer. The operator stopped the bulldozer, saw a hardhat on the ground, exited the bulldozer and found the worker on the ground.

As a result of the contact, the worker suffered critical injuries

An ergonomist from the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development performed a visibility and line-of-sight assessment to identify any blind spots or areas with an obstructed view from the perspective of the equipment operator.

The assessment concluded that the injured worker would not reasonably have been noticed by the equipment operator while the bulldozer was reversing and the ability for the operator to view the worker within the rear view mirror while reversing the bulldozer would have become progressively more obstructed. In such a scenario, a signaller should have been used to assist the equipment operator.