STEPHENVILLE, N.L. — Dennis Critchley had been sitting quietly at the back of the courtroom during proceedings involving PowerTel Utilities.
PowerTel Utilities was charged with safety-related offences after an investigation by the Occupational Health and Safety Division of Service NL into a January 2017 fatal accident at a Maritime Transmission Link worksite at Indian Head, near Stephenville Crossing.
As the company was sentenced last Friday in provincial court in Stephenville, there was little reaction from Critchley, who witnessed the accident that took the life of 30-year-old Phil Parsons.
Judge Lynn E. Cole, satisfied with a joint submission by the Crown and the counsel representing the accused, fined the company $125,000 in total.
The breakdown included a $30,000 fine on a charge for failure to provide and maintain a safe workplace and necessary equipment, systems or tools; $60,000 on a charge of failure to provide the necessary information, instruction or supervision to ensure health, safety and welfare; and $35,000 on a charge of failure to ensure that safe work procedures are followed at all workplaces.
J. David Eaton of the business law firm McInnes Cooper had previously entered guilty pleas on behalf of the company, which was given 120 days to pay the fines. Eaton was not in court and appeared via teleconference from St. John’s.
No one from the company was present.
Proper grounding not set up
Brett Parsons, brother of Phil Parsons, listened to the proceedings via videoconference from Halifax. Several other relatives of Parsons were in the courtroom.
Critchley hoped larger fines than normal will result in companies taking heed and preventing something like this from happening again. But no amount of fines can undo the damage done.
“I’m very sorry about what happened to Phil," said Crithcley. "Nobody wants to see anything happen to their co-worker and he was a friend besides. I really feel for his family."
According to facts previously read into court record by Crown Attorney Susan Gallant, which were agreed to by the company, proper electrical grounding was not set up at the job site and work should have been stopped after both Parsons and a co-worker received shocks.
Gallant said the written procedures for pole top rescue were not followed on that day.
There was potential for induced electric current on the power lines from wind and other factors, stated the agreed facts. The proper safety checks were not done on Pole 389, where the accident occurred, contributing to Parsons’ death.
PTSD, more charges
Critchley said the incident happened very quickly and said it was probably the worst day in his life.
“Hopefully I’ll never see something like that again,” Critchley said.
He’s still having a hard time since the incident. He hasn’t worked since the experience left him with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“This plays a lot on a man’s mind. People look at you and physically you look fine. The point is what’s going on in your mind as trauma affects people differently,” he said.
Critchley has been attending court for the appearances of Danny Gillingham, the supervisor on the job when Parsons died, who was also charged. He said he'll attend Gillingham's next appearance March 2 to try and give him some support.
“For me, everything that happened amounted to bad circumstances and ended up in a lot of sadness for everyone involved." — Dennis Critchley
Gillingham is facing charges of failure of supervisor to ensure the health, safety and welfare of workers; and failure of supervisor to meet specific safety duties.
Critchley has been attending weekly counselling for his post-traumatic stress symptoms. He has difficulty reliving the events of that terrible fateful day, but feels being in the courtroom is personally important to help deal with what happened.
“For me, everything that happened amounted to bad circumstances and ended up in a lot of sadness for everyone involved,” Critchley said.
He hopes once all court proceedings are over, he will get back to work as a truck driver/heavy equipment operator.
“At 57 years of age, it’s a hard thing to get out of your head,” the Stephenville Crossing man said.
