A WorkSafeBC officer investigating the death of pipe layer Jeff Caron at a Burnaby worksite 12 years ago asked Caron's employer J. Cote and Son Excavating Ltd. for safety documents but didn’t get much in response, according to his testimony in court this week.
Lonny Bouchard, a retired WorkSafeBC fatal and serious injury investigator, testified at the trial of J. Cote and foreman David Green in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver Thursday.
J. Cote has been charged with criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing injury for the death of Caron and the injury of his co-worker Thomas Richer.
Green faces those charges and the additional charge of manslaughter.
Both pleaded not guilty at the beginning of their trial last month.
Caron was working on a sewer replacement project in a lane north of Edinburgh Street on Oct. 11, 2012, when a retaining wall collapsed into the trench he was working in, crushing him.
Bouchard, who investigated Caron's death with Gary Anderson, another WorkSafeBC inspector who has since died, told the court his job as a fatal and serious injury investigator was to respond to workplace accidents to find out what happened, what caused it and ensure it didn't happened again.
Part of that process included directing employers with more than 20 employees to produce documents, including training records, health and safety records, safe work procedures, engineering documents, joint health and safety committee meeting records, safety audits, procedures for working in and around excavations, discipline policies, and contracts, to prove the employers' due diligence in relation to safety.
"The whole idea of this directive order is to give the employer a chance to produce all this documentation to show they have done due diligence and something else has gone wrong," Bouchard said.
Crown prosecutor Louisa Winn asked Bouchard if he had requested those documents from J. Cote, and he said he had.
"To your knowledge or recollection, do you know if you received anything?" Winn asked.
"I know that they had an old safety manual," Bouchard said. "I don't believe we received very much, if anything."
After Bouchard's and Anderson's investigation, Bouchard said they issued J. Cote a series of orders under the Workers Compensation Act and Occupational Health and Safety Regulation related to providing workers information; instruction; training and supervision necessary to ensure health and safety; ensuring the worksite was evaluated for hazards; providing a young-worker orientation; reporting harmful conditions; and having a formal occupational health and safety program.
"It formally says you have to have meetings pertaining to health and safety," Bouchard said of the last order.
The trial is scheduled to continue on Tuesday.
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