A WorkSafeBC inspector said he was "surprised" and "shocked" at words said at the scene of a fatal workplace accident by a J. Cote and Son Excavating Ltd. foreman now on trial for manslaughter.
Safety officer Douglas Fielding was the first WorkSafeBC official at the scene after a wall collapsed into a trench in the laneway north of Edinburgh Street on Oct. 11, 2012, killing 28-year-old pipe layer Jeff Caron and injuring his co-worker Thomas Richer.
Fielding testified in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver Wednesday at the trial of J. Cote and Son Excavating Ltd. and foreman David Green.
J. Cote has been charged with criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing injury for the death of Caron and the injury of Richer.
Green faces those charges and the additional charge of manslaughter.
Both pleaded not guilty at the beginning of their trial last month.
Fielding told the court he arrived at the trench at about noon on Oct. 11, 2012, to do an inspection.
During the course of that work, he said he encountered Green and City of Burnaby project manager Geoff Tsuyuki about 20 feet from the collapsed wall.
Answering questions from Crown prosecutor Louisa Winn, Fielding twice began to tell about words he said he had heard Green say.
Fielding said he was "surprised" and "shocked" by what he heard but before he could tell the court what it was, that line of questioning was shut down by objections from Green's lawyer, Brock Martland on the basis of hearsay.
WorkSafeBC orders
RCMP was still on scene when Fielding arrived at the scene but Caron and Richer had already been taken to hospital.
He told the court his job was only to inspect for "immediate concerns," not to investigate the fatal accident.
"Members of the investigations team would do a more thorough investigation," he said.
Fielding said he issued a stop work order based on hazards he saw, including a shed beside the trench that been undermined by the wall collapse and needed to be demolished.
He ordered the company to demolish the shed and write an incident investigation report.
WorkSafeBC regulations require employers to write incident investigation reports after accidents listing the sequence of events that led to the accident, any unsafe acts and conditions and what corrective actions the company plans to take to prevent future incidents.
Fielding also ordered the company to have an engineer revise its safe work procedures to deal with other structures along the project route.
J. Cote hired Edward Yip — the same engineer who had issued the company a certificate nine days before Caron's death saying the trench was safe for workers to enter without shoring or sloping.
Yip’s revised safety plan included a series of measures, according to Fielding.
"Most of them were for installing a shoring box, either single or double. Some of them were double stacked," Fielding said.
The plan also included an "individual plan" for each structure along the route, including holding back telephone poles with large concrete blocks.
Fielding was the first of four WorkSafeBC officials expected to testify at the trial in the coming days.
Lonny Bouchard, a retired WorkSafeBC investigator who investigated the fatal accident, is expected to testify Thursday.
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