Damages include financial support for family, loss of household services, among others
The family of a 24-year-old worker who died after being crushed by a cement-pumping truck at a worksite was awarded $875,000 by a B.C. court.
Sebastian Gomez died in 2016 while he was working at a townhouse site. There, "a tragic construction accident left one worker dead, another paralyzed, and three others claiming psychological trauma," according to the decision released by Justice F. Matthew Kirchner on Monday, reported CTV News.
To reach the far corners of the site, concrete was pumped from a 12-wheeled truck through a hose attached to mobile metal boom. To counteract the weight of its outstretched boom, the pump truck was stabilized by four outrigger legs, according to court documents.
Then, without warning, a steel collar-plate securing one of the legs on the truck fractured. The outrigger buckled and collapsed, removing a critical support from the boom above. The boom, laden with liquid concrete, levered the truck into the air as it fell until the truck balanced only on its front right tire. The boom dropped on to (the two men) who were working below, it said.
“The loss was an immense tragedy for the young family. Though very young at the time of the accident, the children remember their dad fondly. They keep pictures of him in their rooms and speak often of him to Ms. Valancia-Palaciao," judge Kirchner wrote.
The lawsuit was brought by Gomez' widow, Mariana Valencia-Palaciao, on behalf of herself, her children, and Gomez' parents.
The damages awarded included $588,000 for loss of financial support the family experienced with Gomez’s death, $100,000 for loss of household services and $60,000 for loss of inheritance.
Gomez’s children were also awarded $45,000 each for loss of future guidance. Special damages awarded also amounted to $36,643.45 for grief counselling, emergency childcare and funeral costs which included having Gomez laid to rest in Colombia.
The employer, KCP Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., never filed a statement of defence and was found liable.
Recently, Ontario employer Countrywide Recycling Inc. – a company that provides waste management and recovery services – was tasked to pay $100,000 for one incident that left one of its workers fatally injured. The worker at the company’s Hamilton recycling plant was walking from the storage bunkers in the facility toward an area known as the tipping floor. Suddenly, the worker was struck by a reversing front-end loader. The worker was fatally injured in the incident.
More than a month since the death of construction worker David McCluskey, his family still had questions about what exactly happened. McCluskey – a 38-year-old employee of Coco Paving – was struck by a cement truck and died on scene shortly after 4 p.m. on May 25 when he was working at the Crosstown’s Cedarvale Station site on Allen Road and Eglinton Avenue run by Crosslinx Transit Solutions.
