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Wednesday, November 6, 2013
WorkSafe issues orders in flagger worksite death
Initial investigation: Three firms get orders
Peter W. Rusland
News Leader Pictorial
W Andrew Leong
Brian Gore, Quieque Sinesi, Pino Forastiere and Mike Dawes (from left) brought guitar skill from three continents to the Cowichan Theatre Saturday, during International Guitar Night.
Pompeo shooting case could set national precedent
Defence: asking for a conditional sentence or discharge, two choices unavailable in Canadian law Peter W. Rusland
News Leader Pictorial
J
udge Josiah Wood has lots of reading to do this month. The Duncan provincial court judge could set legal precedence by deciding if his sentencing options — in this case, for convicted local Mountie David Pompeo’s aggravated assault of Chemainus’ Bill Gillespie — can include a conditional discharge or a conditional sentence order. Neither are currently choices for an aggravated-assault conviction under the Canadian Criminal Code. Crown lawyers Carmen Rogers and Lesley Ruzicka explained — after dense delibera-
tions Thursday and Friday — Pompeo and his lawyer, Ravi Hira, are challenging Pompeo’s right to those sentence choices under Canada’s Charter of Rights. Wood said he had to make “a number of determinants” about constitutionality in the complex case. Based on his looming homework, Wood said he’d “try and be specific” when advising Crown and defence about his ruling by month’s end. A date for Pompeo’s sentencing will be fixed Nov. 19 in Duncan court. The maximum prison sentence he could get for shooting and wounding an unarmed Gillespie, on the night Sept. 18, 2009, is 14 years. Crown is seeking 18 months to two years
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less a day. “A sentence doesn’t have to be long to be severe,” noted Wood. Ideally, Hira wants a conditional discharge for Pompeo, 33. If that’s unavailable, he’d settle for a suspended sentence. If that’s unavailable, a conditional sentence — or finally, if need be, a 90-day intermittent sentence served in the community, Rogers explained. Ruzicka, a member of B.C.’s prosecutionsupport unit, told the court if a conditional discharge were available in Pompeo’s case, it would be contrary to the public interest. And that ruling, she noted, could then apply to other serious crimes, such as attempted murder with a weapon, and torture. more on page 19
orkSafeBC has issued orders to three firms in connection to the recent death of a Cowichan traffic flagger. Richmond’s Island Traffic Services Ltd. received two orders during WorkSafe’s ongoing probe into how Maggie Feeley, a Cobble Hill mother of three, was critically injured after being pinned by a Stone Pacific gravel truck Oct. 21 on the job on Beverly Street. She died in hospital on Oct. 23. Single orders were also given to the site’s prime contractor, Victoria’s O.K. Industries Ltd., and to Duncan’s Range E.L. Kincade. “There were a lot of contributing factors that led to this tragedy,” said WorkSafe’s Alexandra SkinnerReynolds. “Who knows what one single factor could have made a difference?” To prevent future incidents, the three firms involved in Feeley’s death were issued various orders on Friday based on the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. WorkSafe staff found Island Traffic Services had no traffic-control plan in place to ensure all people on site were aware of the traffic-control Maggie Feeley: arrangements and procedures. died Oct. 23 Employers must ensure whenever traffic control is required, those plans must be known to all involved before work begins. WorkSafe also ruled Island Traffic Services’ worker Feeley did not indicate to the truck driver she was going into the hazardous area behind the truck. WorkSafe stipulates adequate safety procedures to minimize possible collisions in hazardous work areas. That means use of a traffic-control system; enforced speed limits of mobile equipment; and pedestrians and mobile equipment operators acknowledging each other’s presence before a person on foot enters a danger zone. Regarding Range Kincade, WorkSafe found the driver of the tandem gravel truck, with pup trailer, stopped to ask where to dump the load, “then proceeded to back up without using a method that would ensure it was safe to do so,” states WorkSafe. Regulations stipulate if an equipment operator’s view is blocked, that rig can’t move until action is taken to protect the operator and other workers. more on page 8
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