Worker Dies as Employer is Accused of Failing to Take Reasonable Precautions

June 12, 2017, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

Olivier Bruneau was a 24-year-old young man when in March of last year he was struck and killed by a chunk of ice on a workplace site. The ice fell off a wall in an excavation that he was working on. The employer has been accused of failing to take all reasonable precautions to prevent the accident. The same employer has been involved in two other workplace deaths, and have been convicted in one of them.   

In Ontario, there is currently no registry which tracks health and safety records of construction companies. While the Ministry of Labour does track injuries and deaths, they do so in order to conduct investigations, however they don’t track whether the number of injuries/deaths on any site or with any company are above average. It appears that courts do not have access to individual company records either according to Radio-Canada investigations as reported on their website.

The Ministry of Labour reports that the construction industry makes up 7% of the province’s workforce but has 30% of traumatic fatalities in the workplace.

The province has made some good strides in enforcing labour standards in the workplace, particularly on construction sites, but there remains a good deal to do in an inherently dangerous workplace.

If you are injured or have lost a loved one in a work place accident you should consider contacting a lawyer specializing in workplace law, and wrongful death to ensure that you know what your rights are. A lawyer can hep you get the compensation you deserve in a time of grief and suffering.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

It is important that you review your accident benefit file with one of our experienced personal injury / car accident lawyers to ensure that you obtain access to all your benefits which include, but are limited to, things like physiotherapy, income replacement benefits, vocational retraining and home modifications.