Two construction companies and a foreman who failed to provide fall-protection safety equipment to their workers have been fined for a workplace accident that has left an Island man severely disabled.

Ryan Mahar, 33, of Emerald, P.E.I., fell from a scaffold Sept. 4, 2019 while working with a construction crew to build a potato warehouse in Elmsdale, P.E.I.

He suffered life-altering injuries, including severe brain damage. Mahar remains at Prince County Hospital in what medical advisors describe as a “totally disabled, vegetative state,” according to court documents.

The foreman and the construction companies pleaded guilty to infractions under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

G.E. Macneill Contracting of Alberton and Seymour DesRoches Construction were each fined $40,000 by Judge Krista MacKay, as she handed down her sentencing decision Wednesday in provincial court in Summerside.

Sean Campbell, a foreman with Seymour DesRoches, was fined $2,000.

“No penalty can compensate for the tragedy that has happened here,” said MacKay. “He had no railing or anything to prevent a fall.”

An agreed statement of facts was provided to the judge prior to the sentencing.

G.E. Macneill Contracting was hired as general contractor to build the potato warehouse and engaged Seymour DesRoches Construction of Kensington as a subcontractor.

The day of the accident, Mahar was a part of a nine-person crew with Seymour DesRoches, as they installed roof trusses on the partially built warehouse.

Mahar was working on an “unguarded rolling work platform,” according to the statement of facts, about 5.5 metres (18 feet) off the ground.

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