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ST. THOMAS, ONT. – A general contractor based in St. Thomas, Ont. was fined for its role in a workplace mishap when a steel truss fell off a truck and injured a worker.

Gary D. Robinson Contracting Ltd. is a general contractor that performs infrastructure construction work. The mishap occurred Nov. 14, 2022 at a worksite on Ron McNeil Line in St. Thomas.

A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development report recounted that on the day of the incident, workers were using a hydraulic tracked excavator to load open web steel trusses onto a lowboy trailer.

They were using a chain attached to the bucket of the excavator to rig the trusses to the bucket. One of the workers was then responsible for chaining and unchaining the trusses between each lift.

The trusses were being stacked on the trailer in two parallel piles that stretched nearly the length of the deck of the 53-foot trailer.

A worker was walking along a stack of trusses on the trailer to unchain the most recently lifted truss when they felt the truss underneath their feet shift and jumped off the trailer.

A truss then slid and fell off the trailer, striking the worker and causing the critical injury.

An investigation by the ministry found that the trusses involved in the incident were wet, not secured on the trailer and stacked metal-on-metal without any dunnage placed between each truss to prevent slipping.

It was determined that the employer failed to ensure that steel trusses were transported, placed or stored in a manner that would not tip, collapse or fall, as required by section 45(b)(i) of Regulation 851, a violation of section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Following a guilty plea in Provincial Offences Court in St. Thomas on July 10, Gary D. Robinson Contracting was fined $55,000 by Justice of the Peace Anna Hampson.