A Leamington company has been found guilty of failing to shore the walls of a trench as required under section 34(1) of Regulation 213/91 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) which resulted in a workplace injury.

South Essex Fabricating Inc., a fabricator of commercial greenhouse structures and pre-engineered buildings, was convicted on July 8, 2024 in the Provincial Offences Court, Windsor.

The conviction stems from an incident that occurred on November 4, 2022, when three company workers were repairing a section of damaged stormwater drainage pipe at a worksite.

The Company had been contracted to build an addition to a greenhouse that the pipe serviced.  The pipe was located inside a trench.

At one end of the trench, the width was just over seven feet, with a depth of just over eight feet. The width and depth of the excavation varied due to the uneven base and walls of the greenhouse. The distance between the two ends of the pipe was approximately 23 feet. The excavated walls of the trench were cut vertically with little or no sloping, and no shoring was in place.

A worker entered the trench to repair the pipe when one of the trench walls collapsed. The collapsed portion of the trench made up a significant portion of the 23 feet cleared to repair the pipe. As a result of the collapse, the worker sustained critical injuries.

Following a guilty plea, Justice of the Peace Mary-Louise Cortese imposed a $65K fine on the company.  The court also imposed a 25% 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.