A Langley, B.C., contractor has been fined over $575,000 after one of its workers was killed, and another seriously injured, when a retaining wall fell onto them in October 2012.

J. Cote and Son Excavating was the main contractor on the project to replace sewer lines on Burnaby’s Edinburgh Street. The business was found guilty of criminal negligence in December last year.

On Oct. 11, 2012, a concrete retaining wall collapsed into an eight-foot-deep trench — killing pipe-layer Jeffrey Caron and seriously injuring his coworker Thomas Richer.

More than 13 years later, Supreme Court Justice Michael Brundrett issued the sentence in the case — after rejecting the company’s arguments that a geotechnical engineer, and the improper construction of the wall, was to blame for the fatality.

“I find that any reasonable contractor who gave thought to the requisite concern for worker safety would have appreciated the obvious and significant risk to workers posed by the retaining wall and its proximity to the trench,” Brundrett wrote in the judgment.

After the company was found guilty of one count of criminal negligence causing death, and another count of criminal negligence causing bodily harm, they were fined $575,000.

J. Cote and Son was also ordered to pay Richer over $6,200 in victim restitution fees.

“The company lacked a proactive approach to safety, due diligence, regulatory awareness, oversight, and specialized knowledge that one would expect,” the judge wrote.

‘Ominous signs’

Brundrett wrote that the deep trench that the two workers were in had vertical edges, meaning they had no easy way to escape in case of a collapse.

“There were ominous signs of danger in the plan to trench near the retaining wall … the mass of the retaining wall and the soil behind it were an obvious sign of risk of worker injury without adequate controls in place,” the judge wrote.

The judge found that the company had no regular formal safety briefings or “meaningful safety policies” for the four-person crew that was working on the sewer pipe project.

In addition, he found that the company’s interpretation of a geotechnical engineering certificate was too broad — saying the company appeared to operate with “an effective carte blanche to [dig a] trench without safety measures near adjacent structures.”

The judge heard from the family of the worker who was killed. Caron was 28, and was of Cree descent, with his family based in Saskatchewan.

His best friend told the court that he was kind and gregarious, and that Caron “brought energy and joy to every gathering.”

Traumatic effects

Richer, who suffered fractured ribs and chronic back pain after the wall collapse, lost his job afterwards.

He went on to lobby on Caron’s behalf, with the court finding that “the traumatic effects of the incident were long-lasting, physical and psychological.”

A WorkSafeBC report into the case, issued in 2014, concluded a series of failures by the contractor contributed to Caron’s death.

According to the judgment, no regulatory penalty has yet been imposed on J. Cote and Son in the case.

While Crown prosecutors sought a fine of $1 million, Brundrett found there were a few mitigating factors that reduced the fine handed to J. Cote and Son.

Those included substantial changes to its policies after the fatal wall collapse, including regular safety meetings.

“I accept J. Cote’s submission that it has since adopted proactive health and safety programs,” Brundrett wrote.

“It is a very different company today than it was at the time of the incident.”