Criminal Charges Laid In Deadly Scaffolding Collapse
Posted October 13, 2010 11:56 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Almost 10 months after a deadly scaffolding collapse, police have charged three men and the construction company overseeing work on the west-end highrise where the incident happened.
On December 24th of last year, six construction workers were repairing and restoring a 13th floor balcony at 2757 Kipling Avenue. Around 4:30pm, as a seventh man tried to get on the swing stage they were on, it broke in two.
Aleksey Blumberg, 33, Vladimir Korostin, 40, Fayzullo Fazilov, 31, Aleksanders Bondarevs, 25, all fell to their deaths. Dilshod Marupov, 22, survived the fall, but broke both his legs and his spine. A sixth man, who was attached to a lifeline, was rescued.
In August, Marupov launched a $16.3 million lawsuit against Metron Construction Corporation, Swing ‘N’ Scaff, the apartment owner and the Ontario Ministry of Labour.
And the Ministry itself charged Metron, its president Joel Swartz, and supervisor Vadim Kazenelson, as well as Swing ‘N’ Scaff and its director Patrick Deschamps with a total of 61 charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Now, in addition to the financial damages, three of the men involved may face jail time. Swartz, 51, Kazenelson, 35, and another Metron official, 52-year-old Benny Saigh, have each been charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm and four counts of criminal negligence causing death.
They were scheduled to appear in court Wednesday afternoon.
