An engineer admitted to unprofessional conduct for signing off on the unsupported North Burnaby trench where 28-year-old pipe layer Jeff Caron was killed 12 years ago.
Edward Yip, the principal consultant for Earthbitat Engineering Inc., was also investigated by police in relation to Caron’s death before becoming a Crown witness against the company that hired him to certify the trench, according to information that came out this week at the trial of J. Cote and Son Excavating Ltd. and foreman David Green.
J. Cote is on trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver for 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.
Last week, the court heard J. Cote had retained Yip at the beginning of a City of Burnaby sewer replacement project in the laneway north of Edinburgh Street, and that Yip had issued the company a certificate that said the trench was "safe for workers to enter" without shoring or sloping as long as certain conditions were met.
He made the document valid for 14 days.
Under WorkSafeBC regulations, Yip said contractors are required to have such a certificate for trenches four feet or deeper if they don’t use shoring boxes or sloping to reduce the risk of trench collapse.
There was no shoring box or cage in the trench when the wall fell on Caron and Richer, according to other witnesses.
Yip said he had examined the soil conditions in a four-metre test hole at the corner of Gilmore Avenue and the lane but hadn't walked the project route or inspected the many retaining walls and other structures that would be close to the trench.
Yip was cross-examined by J. Cote’s lawyer William Smart Monday.
Smart suggested Yip knew he should have walked the project route and identified adjacent structures that might be a hazard, but Yip said that was beyond his scope of work.
He said the project included four city blocks, and properly inspecting each of the adjacent structures would have taken a lot of time.
"By the time I do that, the cost will be not acceptable to the contractor," he said.
And there were no structures near the excavation he inspected at the east end of the project, according to Yip.
"I was expecting that when they come to an improvement or structure adjacent to the excavation then they will have to do a follow-up because there were so many different improvement and structures," Yip said.
But J. Cote didn’t call him back until after the accident, he said.
"You didn't need to walk the project?" Smart asked.
"No," Yip said.
"You didn't need to give them advice or instructions on adjacent structures or improvements?"
"No, unless they call and ask for specific evaluation."
"You're sure of that?"
Smart then showed Yip a March 2023 Engineers and Geoscientists BC document that showed Yip had paid a $10,000 fine and $5,000 in legal and investigative fees in relation to the report he prepared for J. Cote.
In the document, Yip admitted to unprofessional conduct and violating the Engineers and Geoscientists BC code of ethics because he didn't physically inspect "the whole area in which the trench could reasonably be expected to have been excavated over the 14 days for which his report's certification applied."
He also admitted to failing to note structures along the route and to state the required distance between those structures and the anticipated trench area.
Finally, Yip admitted to failing to properly state the steps that had to be taken to safely excavate if structures were too close to the trench.
Yip resigned from the professional organization in December 2022, and agreed never to apply for membership again, according to the document.
During cross-examination, Smart also questioned Yip about the RCMP investigation into the fatal accident.
Yip agreed police had asked him to give a sworn statement on two different occasions, and he declined both times.
Smart also asked Yip about a search warrant police executed at the Earthbitat office and asked if he knew RCMP were recommending criminal charges against his company as well as J. Cote.
Yip said he didn't know.
"You are aware that your lawyer and Crown counsel had discussions before charges were laid, and you ended up being a Crown witness?" Smart asked.
"Yes," Yip said.
Yip's cross-examination continued Tuesday morning with questions from Green's lawyer, Joe Saulnier.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on X/Twitter @CorNaylor
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