Ontario Construction News staff writer
Dr. Joel Kirsh, Regional Supervising Coroner for Central Region, Central East Office, has announced a new date for the inquest into the death of Jacob Gordon.
According to a Ministry of Labour investigation, Gordon, 24, was electrocuted when a truck’s boom came in contact with live overhead electrical lines at a K-Line construction project on the north side of Hwy. 7, east of Dufferin Street, in Thornhill.
PGC Services Inc., a Gormley company that provides hydro vacuum excavation to the construction and utilities industries, and K-Line Maintenance and Construction Limited, a Stouffville company that provides services for overhead distribution lines, were fined a total of $285,000 in a Newmarket court on Feb. 15, 2018.
PGC pleaded guilty to violating the Occupational Health and Safety Act for failing to ensure no object was brought closer than three metres to the overhead electrical lines, the ministry said.
K-Line pleaded guilty to failing to ensure a designated signaller was in place to warn the operator each time any part of the vehicle or equipment approached three metres of the electrical lines.
The purpose of the inquest is to examine the circumstances surrounding Mr. Gordon’s death. Once all parties with standing have the opportunity to present their information and ask questions of the witnesses, the jury may make recommendations aimed at preventing future deaths from occurring in similar circumstances.
The inquest is expected to last four days and hear from four witnesses.
The inquest will start at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, September 6, 2022, at the Forensic Services and Coroners Complex, Courtroom B, 25 Morton Shulman Ave., Toronto. Dr. Mary Beth Bourne will be the presiding officer and Roger Shallow will be inquest counsel.
For more information about inquests, see: https://www.ontario.ca/page/coroners-inquests.
