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Construction contractor fined for electrician’s death in Windsor, Ont.

November 8, 2018 | By Peter Saunders



November 8, 2018 – A fatal fall for an electrician has resulted in a $150,000 fine for Vollmer, a multi-trade (including electrical) construction contractor based in Windsor, Ont.

The worker, Rob Morneau, was killed after falling through a skylight at a Ventra Plastics facility on Windsor’s Kew Drive on Nov. 3, 2016. At the time, Vollmer was setting up new machinery at the plant, which involved installing electrical equipment and cabling.

Specifically, a crew was pulling lengths of heavy electrical cabling onto the roof of the plant. During a break, after observing the worker on part of the roof, they heard a crash, then saw a shattered skylight and the worker on the concrete floor directly below. The fallen worker was taken to a hospital and pronounced deceased.

While the building’s skylights all had covers at the time, no guardrails, protective coverings or other means of fall protection had been installed or implemented to protect workers on the roof from falling through. Section 26.2(1.1) of Ontario’s Construction Projects Regulation 213/91 requires workers to use (and be trained to use) a fall protection system when working at heights.

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Following a guilty plea, Vollmer was convicted and fined on Oct. 12, 2018. The court also imposed a 25% victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act to be credited to a special government fund to assist victims of crime.


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