Chelmsford-based construction company R.M. Belanger Limited has been fined $175,000 by the courts under the Occupational Health and Safety Act following the death of a worker in Marathon, Ont. in 2019 resulting from a collapsing bridge.

The company pleaded guilty of failing as an employer to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker, contrary to section 25(2)(h) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, said a press release from the Ministry of Labour.

Following the guilty plea in provincial offences court in Thunder Bay, R.M. Belanger Limited was fined $175,000 July 9 by Justice of the Peace Denette C. Ellard.

The court also imposed a 25-per-cent 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.

R.M. Belanger Limited was also convicted Feb. 26 under the same violation of the OHSA and fined $210,000 after a Sept. 17, 2018 incident involving a worker who was killed at a Chelmsford golf course. 

That worker was struck by a wooden telephone pole while it was being loaded with a forklift onto a trailer.

The aforementioned fatal incident in Marathon, Ont. took place Aug. 14, 2019.

The worker was killed when a bridge that was being jacked into place collapsed. The company failed to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring a safe procedure was used for jacking down a temporary modular bridge.

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