A Toronto construction company has been fined $50,000 after an excavator came into contact with live overhead hydro lines at a job site in Port Perry last year.

Coco Paving Inc., a Toronto-based heavy construction company, was convicted in a Whitby provincial offences court on Nov. 6 by justice of the peace John MacDonald and fined $50,000 for the Feb. 8, 2018 incident. The court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development, Coco Paving was hired by Durham Region to supply and install a sanitary force main, which is an underground pipe used to move waste to a sewage plant. On Feb. 8, 2018, a worker employed by Coco Paving was working on the project at the northwest corner of Simcoe and Kellett streets in Port Perry and was in the process of moving material with an excavator.

A co-worker connected a section of force main to the excavator so that it could be moved and after it was secured the excavator operator raised the boom of the excavator and struck the overhead power lines, said the provincial press release.

No one was injured as a result of the incident.

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