Company fined after man dies from fall down elevator shaft on Toronto jobsite

TORONTO—A Toronto construction company has been hit with $90,000 fine for failing to post adequate signage on a downtown jobsite.

Dominus Construction Corp. pleaded guilty to the offence in court July 27 after an 84-year-old man died from injuries sustained at one of its project sites more than two years ago.

The incident happened in May 2016 when a non-worker, identified by local media as Carl Mollins, entered a condo construction site on Queens Quay. The man fell down an elevator shaft that had yet to be equipped with an elevator and later died of his injuries.

According to the Ministry of Labour, Mollins did not have authorization to enter the building and investigators were unable to determine how or why he accessed the site. Some signage was posted on external fencing warning about “danger due to construction.”

A worker found the man at the bottom of the elevator shaft after hearing calls for help.

The subsequent investigation found three entrances to the elevator shaft were blocked by temporary wooden doors that appeared identical to those in other interior doorways on the jobsite. There were no signs on any of the elevator shaft doors warning of danger, in conflict with Ontario health and safety regulations. The province said the signage on the exterior of the work site was “was insufficient to warn of the hazard of the open elevator shaft.”