The City of Greater Sudbury pleaded not guilty March 28 to seven charges laid under the Occupational Health and Safety Act in the death of a pedestrian at a downtown construction project in 2015.
One of those charges — not having a proper traffic control plan — was later dropped by the Crown because it was found the charge doesn't apply to the city in the role it had in the construction project in question.
Other charges against the city include not providing signallers for the grader operator, not erecting a 1.8 metre "sturdy fence" to separate the public from the construction site and not ensuring that its contractor, Interpaving, was following those three sections of the Health and Safety Act.
Cecile Paquette was killed on Sept. 30, 2015 while crossing the intersection of Elgin Street and Beech Street, an area under construction at the time.
Interpaving Limited had been contracted by the City of Greater Sudbury to provide construction services for watermain improvements and repaving of several streets in the city's downtown area, including the section of Elgin Street north of Elm Street to Ste. Anne Road.
The contractor also faced three charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act in Paquette's death.
Two of those charges — not erecting a fence and not implementing a traffic protection plan — were dropped by the Crown as part of a settlement agreement March 28.
Interpaving entered a not guilty plea for the final charge, not providing signallers for the grader operator, but was found guilty by Ontario Court of Justice Judge Andrew Buttazzoni.
The company was fined $195,000 plus a 25 per cent victim surcharge in Paquette's death.
The agreed statement of facts between the Crown and Interpaving said some of the factors leading to Paquette's tragic death included her walking across the intersection of Elgin and Beech Street against a red light.
The absence of a signaller or paid duty police officer at the Elgin-Beech intersection and a blind spot in the grader operators machine also contributed to the collision.
After the Interpaving settlement agreement was worked out at the Elm Street Courthouse, proceedings moved to the provincial building on Cedar Street, where the case against the city is being heard until April 26.
Dave McCaskill, Crown council for the Ministry of Labour, called three witnesses before Justice Karen Lishe Wednesday.
Those included Dawn Savignac, the Ministry of Labour inspector who investigated the aftermath of Paquette's death.
Interpaving employees Benoit St. Jean, who was driving the grader that struck the woman, and Ivan McGregor, a flagger who working further down Elgin Street when the incident occurred, were also cross-examined.
Videos and photos of the incident, as well as a great deal of paperwork, were also entered onto the official record.
St. Jean testified he made sure the light was green at the intersection of Elgin and Beech streets, looked over his right shoulder and checked all four mirrors before backing up his grader, but didn't see Paquette.
An emotional St. Jean, an experienced heavy equipment operator who has worked at Interpaving for 27 years, said he realized there had been an accident when he “felt a bump” and “people were yelling.”
“I looked under the machine and saw a woman in between the wheels,” St. Jean said.
He said that earlier in the day, he'd had a conversation with a city inspector, Rob Rocca, who told him not to use a flagman at the intersection of Elgin and Beech, and to instead use the traffic lights.
When asked by McCaskill what could have been done differently that might have prevented Paquette's death, St. Jean said the whole street could have been closed to pedestrians and vehicles.
The lawyer representing the city, Ryan Conlin, called into question St. Jean's attitude towards driving safety.
He read out St. Jean's Ministry of Transportation record, which includes a string of more than 40 convictions, including numerous speeding tickets and handful of impaired-related criminal convictions dating back to the 1980s.
McGregor, one of two Interpaving flaggers controlling vehicle traffic further down Elgin Street on the day of the incident, said he hadn't been asked to watch out for pedestrian traffic.
He was facing away from Paquette when she was struck, and didn't see the accident occur.
McGregor testified pedestrians were walking “wherever they liked,” and he'd been asked by city inspectors to put the plastic caution tape roping off the sidewalks back up after it had fallen down.
Like St. Jean, he said the road should have been closed off to vehicles and pedestrians while the work was ongoing.
Besides the construction workers' testimony, the trial also focused Wednesday on whether or not the City of Greater Sudbury should be considered a “constructor” on the road project in question.
The city contends that under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, it should be considered an “owner” and Interpaving the “constructor,” meaning it had less on-the-ground responsibility.
The Ministry of Labour says the city is a “constructor” in this case. The matter was already brought before the Ontario Labour Relations Board, which suspended its orders pending the outcome of the current court case.
Ministry of Labour inspector Dawn Savignac, under cross-examination by Conlin, said she didn't file papers saying the city should be considered the “constructor” until Nov. 6, more than a month after the incident occurred.
The trial against the city continues in a Cedar Street courtroom Thursday morning at 10 a.m.
