A civil construction company based out of Concord has been fined $130,000 in conjunction with a 2023 workplace fatality.

Fourwinds Construction Inc. pled guilty to a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act in a Newmarket courtroom. The company will also pay a 25% victim fine surcharge that is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

The incident occurred on a road-widening construction project on Rutherford Road, between Peter Rupert Avenue and Bathurst Street in Vaughan on August 31, 2023. Fourwinds had been contracted to install water, wastewater and stormwater utilities for the project.

Three of Fourwinds’ workers were installing a headwall, a wall of concrete with a hole near the middle that frames the outlet of a drainage pipe or culvert.

As they attempted to fit the headwall to the pipe, the workers determined the excavation site was not wide enough to align the headwall, requiring further digging.

To clear the area for digging, the excavator operator moved the headwall and placed it in an upright position. Workers removed the chain sling from the excavator boom and attached the digging bucket.

While excavating to fit the headwall, the excavator bucket contacted the headwall, causing it to tip and fatally injure a worker.

Fourwinds Construction Inc. was found to have failed, as an employer, to ensure the headwall was moved and stored in a manner that did not endanger a worker, as required by section 37(1) of Regulation 213/91, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.