News Roads & Paving Safety
Sudbury contractor found guilty in drill rig incident on Thunder Bay highway project

THUNDER BAY, Ont. – Sudbury, Ont.-based contractor Consbec Inc. has been convicted of a health and safety offence after pleading guilty to an incident that occurred on a Thunder Bay highway project.

Thunder Bay’s Provincial Offences Court determined on Dec. 11, 2023, that Consbec had failed to ensure that a worker who suffered critical injuries from a drill rig tip-over on the project site was provided with the sufficient information, instruction and supervision for the safe operation of the equipment.

The incident occurred on a Highway 11/17 jobsite near Dorion Township, where Consbec was performing highway expansion work.

The worker was operating a drill rig to advance a series of boreholes for rock blasting along a ditch. Given the uneven ground, the drill rig tipped forward when the worker extended the drill’s rig mast upright, striking and injuring the worker. The worker’s direct supervisor had left the ditch to return equipment to an on-site storage unit at the time of the incident.

Consbec was found to be in violation of section 25(2)(a) of Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act and received a fine of $125,000.