Worker died in a hospital from injuries he sustained while operating a dump truck
A date has been set for an inquest into the death of a truck driver in Ontario.
The inquest will be held on June 13, said Dr. Harry Voogjarv, regional supervising coroner for the North Region out of the Sudbury Office, according to a report from Sudbury.com.
The inquest will look into the circumstances surrounding the April 6, 2017, death of 59-year-old Ronald Charles Lepage.
Lepage died in a hospital from injuries he sustained while operating a dump truck at the Copper Cliff Refinery in Sudbury.
Lepage was a contract driver for a Sudbury company who was disposing waste materials at Vale’s central tailings area when the fatal accident happened.
The jury will review the evidence and may make recommendations aimed at preventing further deaths. The inquest is expected to last four days and hear from approximately 10 witnesses.
The inquest will start at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, June 13, 2022, at the Sudbury Courthouse, 155 Elm Street. Dr. Geoffrey Bond will be the presiding officer. Mathieu Ansell and Manon Arbour will be inquest counsel, according to the report.
Lepage was employed by Cecchetto and Sons. His employer initiated a GoFundMe to benefit the man’s family following his death.
“Ronnie was an extremely hardworking man that provided for his family, leaving them way too early at the age of 59,” said the GoFundMe page. “We are asking our local community to come together with open arms and share their generosity to help support the family during this very difficult time.
Last month, a 40-year-old farm tractor driver died after a crash on Mill Village Road in the Shubenacadie village in Nova Scotia. In December 2021, one worker was critically injured when a driverless bus crashed into a tree in Whitby in Ontario. A month earlier, a semi-truck driver died while a bus driver was injured in a fiery crash on Highway 16 near McBride, B.C.
Motor vehicle incidents were the leading cause of work-related fatalities in Ontario every single year during the past decade, according to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) in Ontario.
And If the data from Burnaby RCMP, in British Columbia, is going to be the basis, it seems far too many commercial vehicles are unsafe for the road. In a roadside safety check, inspectors found that 67 per cent of commercial vehicles were “unfit for the roadway”.
