Worker Crushed by Mobile Home, RV Resort Fined in London Court

Convicted: AFTT Developments Inc., operating as Golden Pond RV Resort, 4340 Cromarty Drive, RR 2, Mossley, Ontario, a mobile home and recreational vehicle residential park and campground.

Location: The company’s park and campground in Mossley, about 30 km east of London, Ontario.

Description of Offence: Workers were moving a mobile home from one site to an adjacent one when the mobile home shifted, fell off the jacks supporting it, and came down on one of the workers, who died from the injuries.

Date of Offence: September 19, 2016.

Date of Conviction: March 22, 2018.

Penalty Imposed:

  • Following a guilty plea, the company was fined $70,000 by Justice of the Peace Thomas Stinson in London court; Crown Counsel Judy L. Chan.
  • The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Background:

  • A mobile home was being moved by workers who were using jacks to raise the structure. It was being raised high enough to allow the workers to slide steel beams under the undercarriage.
  • The workers had raised the structure about nine inches when it began to shift and fell off the jacks.
  • One worker was able to roll out from underneath but the structure came down on another worker, who was pinned before being able to get out of the way.
  • The worker was taken to hospital and succumbed to the injuries the next day.
  • The Ministry of Labour investigation determined that the soil on which the blocks supporting the jacks were placed was damp and soft, increasing the instability of the structure, and the jacks were lifted too high, which made the mobile home unstable on the jacks. The mobile home was not adequately braced to prevent movement that may affect its stability and cause it to shift and collapse.
  • Section 31(1)(b) of the Construction Projects Regulation (Regulation 213/91) prescribes that every part of a project, including a temporary structure, shall be adequately braced to prevent any movement that may affect its stability or cause its failure or collapse.
  • Golden Pond failed to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed by the regulation were complied with, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. This is an offence pursuant to section 66(1) of the act.

CONTACTS

Janet Deline
Communications
416-326-7405
For media inquiries only: MOLmedialine@ontario.ca

Ministry of Labour
http://www.ontario.ca/labour

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