Convicted: Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited, 14 Carlton Street, Toronto, ON, M5B 1K5, an electric utility that owns and operates the electricity distribution system for the City of Toronto.

Location of Workplace: 236 Willard Avenue, Toronto, Ontario

Description of Offence: A worker suffered a fatal injury while performing work in an underground electrical vault.

Date of Offence: August 12, 2020

Date of Conviction: August 17, 2022.

Penalty Imposed:

• Following a guilty plea in the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto, Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited was fined $200,000 by Judge Leslie Chapin; Counsel David McCaskill.

• 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.

Background:

• On the day of the incident a six-person crew from Toronto Hydro was sent to a worksite to perform work in an underground electrical vault. The work was limited to disconnecting energized secondary cables to a transformer in order for the transformer to be removed and replaced later by a different crew.

• When the crew arrived, they began work by completing a Work Site Risk Assessment Form and discussing the contents of the form, including who would perform the various elements of the task. The roles and responsibilities of each crew member were discussed and agreed to, with each member then getting into position.

• Stationed above ground, one crew member passed equipment below into the vault. A second crew member received the tools and, as needed, passed tools within the vault.

• With help from the crew, an apprentice and another worker manually disconnected the secondary cables connected to the transformer while wearing insulated rubber gloves. Together, the crew completed the work of disconnecting the secondary cables.

• After completing the task, a reading was taken indicating that the current on the cables was too high. To reduce the current, the crew had to perform a different task involving the connection of a previously removed tie-cable to another service cable.

• During the connection of the final cable, the worker was still wearing insulated rubber gloves while securing a bolt with a box wrench and holding an impact gun in the other hand.

• At this time, the worker came into contact with low voltage electricity. The electrical shock injured the worker and caused the worker to fall.

• The worker was taken to hospital but succumbed later to their injuries sustained as a result of the electrical contact.

• Section 183 of Construction Projects, Ontario Reg 213/91 requires every reasonable precaution be taken to prevent hazards to workers from energized electrical equipment, installations and conductors.

• Accordingly, the defendant failed to ensure that measures and procedures prescribed by section 183 of the regulation were carried out in the workplace, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA).