Crown prosecutors wrapped up the first section of their case against J. Cote and Son Excavating Ltd. and foreman David Green this week, setting the scene of a fatal workplace accident that killed one worker and injured another in North Burnaby in 2012.
J. Cote is on trial for criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing injury.
Green faces the same charges and an additional charge of manslaughter.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
‘It hit me pretty hard’
Since the trial began last week in Vancouver, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Brundrett has heard from one longtime area resident and three J. Cote workers who were at work on a trench in a laneway behind Edinburgh Street when a concrete retaining wall collapsed into it, killing 28-year-old pipe layer Jeff Caron and injuring his co-worker Thomas Richer.
Each witness was visibly shaken as he recalled the details of Caron’s death, but none more so than 35-year machine operator Marc Loiselle, who used his excavator to lift the wall off Caron after it collapsed.
The veteran construction worker, who took the stand Wednesday, paused frequently to collect himself.
"It hit me pretty hard," he said.
Loiselle was back in his excavator after a morning coffee break on Oct. 11, 2012 when the wall collapsed, he said.
He said he saw Green motion for him to bring the excavator over, so he quickly released the bucket from the machine's boom and moved to the front of the trench to lift the wall.
"When I moved towards the front, I saw Jeff," he said. "I saw the wall had him pinned against the bank … I made eye contact with him. He was pushing against the bank trying to push the wall off of him."
He had seen Richer scramble out of the trench when the wall fell but said he appeared to "get a second wind."
Loiselle said Richer was back with Caron when the excavator lifted the wall.
"Jeff came free and Tommy guided him down onto the ground," he said.
After emergency crews arrived, Loiselle said they pulled Caron out of the trench by slings under his arms.
"It was very horrific," Loiselle said.
'A lot of things wrong with it'
Answering questions from Crown prosecutor Emmanuelle Rouleau, Loiselle said there had been no conversations about the retaining wall or instructions to be careful around it.
"I didn't have concerns about it," he said. "It had no cracks in it. It had drain holes in it. It had stains where the drain holes was, and that would tell me it had drainage to the back of that wall."
After the wall collapsed, however, he said he could see there were "a lot of things wrong with it."
Instead of rebar, he said it appeared to be held together with "Mickey Mouse" material, and it had no footing to hold it in place.
"It falling down opened up a whole new book for me," Loiselle told J. Cote's lawyer William Smart during cross-examination.
Loiselle said the trench was about three feet from the wall, and that he had dug it "exactly" according to what the geotechnical engineer wanted.
He said Green had explained to him what the engineer wanted.
"And that was part of it, was the way I dug beside the wall," Loiselle said.
Just days after the accident, however, Loiselle had agreed when a WorkSafeBC investigator asked if he had dug "up to the edge of the wall," according to a transcript of the interview presented in court.
"A few days after the incident, I was in la la land," Loiselle said to account for the discrepancy.
'Safety seemed more intense'
When Loiselle returned to the worksite to help finish the project a few months after the wall collapse, he said they moved the line over "away from any structures" and began using a shoring cage to support the trench.
When asked by Rouleau if he had noticed any changes around safety after the accident, he said he did.
There was a safety manual and workers were required to provide initials to show they'd been at safety talks.
"Safety seemed more intense," Loiselle said.
Under cross-examination, however, J. Cote's Smart took Loiselle back to the Oct. 15, 2012, WorkSafeBC transcript.
In it, Loiselle said safety was discussed at J. Cote every day, even before the accident.
"Basically, we have a toolbox meeting all day long because we watch each other's back," Loiselle said in the interview.
Smart asked Loiselle if that was true, and he said yes.
During the interview, Loiselle also said he never felt unsafe at any time during the project, and he didn't remember anyone else, including area residents, bringing up concerns about the safety of the project either.
"There was a lot of talk after the fact," Loiselle said in the interview.
"Did you ever have concerns that the company, J. Cote and Son weren't concerned about the safety of its employees?" Smart asked at the end of his cross-examination.
"No," Loiselle said.
Loiselle said he considered Green and J. Cote owner Jamie Cote friends, and he had been married to Cote's sister, but they had never told him not to co-operate with the investigation into the accident.
"Absolutely not," he said. "They actually suggested that I co-operate, and I did."
No shoring cage
Green's lawyer, Brock Martland, asked Loiselle about the absence of a shoring cage in the trench at the time of the accident.
Martland suggested J. Cote had an engineer's report saying the trench didn't need a shoring cage unless the ground conditions changed, and Loiselle agreed.
Then Martland suggested the cage might not have protected the pipe layers since Loiselle had said the wall had "toppled" or "rolled" into the trench rather than sliding.
"Is it the case that the wall might have simply gone over the shoring cage and fallen on them?" Martland asked.
"In my eyes, yes," Loiselle said. "I can't predict the future, but looking at the wall after the fact, it could have just broken apart when it hit the cage."
The trial is continuing with witnesses expected to give evidence on the administrative side of the City of Burnaby storm- and sewer-pipe replacement project Caron and Richer were working on when the accident happened.
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