Canada Drops Criminal Case Against Kiewit for Site Death

摘要

A Canadian union and a safety expert are blasting a decision by prosecutors in British Columbia to effectively drop a criminal negligence case against U.S. construction giant Kiewit Corp. and two former managers. The case stems from the 2009 death of 24-year-old employee Sam Fitzpatrick, a rock sealer hit by a falling boulder in a steep area of a remote hydroelectric project. Trial had been set for Sept. 7 in a provincial court for Kiewit and ex-managers Gerald Karjala and Timothy Rule, for actions prosecutors said contributed to Fitzpat- rick's death. The accident happened on the estimated C$663-million Toba Inlet run-of-river hydro project, completed in 2010 about 120 miles north of Vancouver. Fitzpatrick sustained fatal head injuries, said B.C. workplace safety agency Work-SafeBC in its accident report. After a rockfall the day before that damaged equipment, the agency said Kiewit "did not take adequate measures to prevent a ... recurrence." WorkSafeBC fined Kiewit C$250,000 in 2011 for safety violations, but that amount was cut to less than C$100,000 on appeal two years later. A tribunal could not determine if company decisions directly led to the boulder striking Fitzpatrick. But a criminal probe began in 2014 after a WorkSafeBC report, with criminal negligence charges filed in 2019 against the firm and the site managers.