Saturday, August 26, 2023

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Death of employee leads to nearly $100K in fines for C.B.S construction company

IT'S THE LAW IN CANADA

Triple J Aggregates fined nearly 3 years after an employee died in a quarry near St. John’s


Chief Judge Robin Fowler handed down nearly $100,000 in fines over the 2020 death of an employee. (Terry Roberts/CBC)

Nearly three years after a Triple J Aggregates employee died in a workplace incident, the company and supervisor Bill Weir have been ordered to pay approximately $100,000 in fines by the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial court.

The construction company faced 11 occupational health and safety charges following the death of an employee in a quarry near St. John's in September of 2020.

Conception Bay South-based company Triple J Aggregates was convicted of two workplace offences. The fines total $80,000 and the company must pay the sum within a year.

Weir was found guilty over a failure to ensure the safety of a worker under his supervision. He has been ordered to pay approximately $4,000 within 90 days.

Chief Judge Robin Fowler handed down the sentence Thursday.

The remaining nine charges against the company were withdrawn.

Construction Company, Supervisor Fined $100,000 Following Death of Worker

Construction Company, Supervisor Fined $100,000 Following Death of Worker

A company and supervisor have been fined just over $100,000 following the death of a worker almost three years ago.

Sixty-one-year-old John Rogers had been with Weir’s Construction and later Triple J Aggregates for 15 years.

But his work and life came to a brutally tragic end when he was hauled into the rock crusher he was operating.

It happened shortly after he got to the quarry off Fowler’s Road on a Friday morning, Sept. 18, 2020.

No one saw what happened, or how the Fortune Bay man got tangled in the conveyor belt that dragged him into the crusher.

But it was determined that several guards around it were missing at the time of the incident.

The small yellow arrow points to where missing factory-installed guarding should be on the rock crusher. (Public court document.)

The first sign of trouble for other workers was the smoke suddenly and unusually coming from the massive machine.

In court this morning, Rogers’ employer, Triple J, the parent company of Weir’s, was convicted of three workplace offences while supervisor Bill Weir, a longtime friend of the victim, was found guilty of failing to ensure his health and safety.

The company was fined almost $100,000 while Weir must pay more than $3,000.

Heart-wrenching victim impact statements from the man’s brother, daughter and niece were filed with the court, but they could not bring themselves to be there.

These weren’t the first infractions linked to Weir’s Construction.

They were also fined for incidents in 2009 and 2012, and slapped with four stop-work orders between 2018 and 2020.

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