A 42-year-old worker died in a concrete pump on a Montérégie construction site in December 2023 because a safety device had been deliberately circumvented, reveals a CNESST investigation.
• Also read: A worker dies at Cascades in Candiac
“Of course we had a big problem. We had an accessible danger zone. This is really the crux of the matter in this case,” summarizes in an interview with Journal Inspector Richard Laplante.
The Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) today revealed the broad outlines of the circumstances surrounding the death of Sébastien Bolduc, in December 2023, in Candiac.
Sébastien Bolduc, a 42-year-old worker, died in a concrete pump on a Montérégie construction site in December 2023 because a safety device had been deliberately circumvented, reveals a CNESST investigation.
Photo taken from the Fournier Family Memorial House website
He worked on behalf of Pompage Élite, a subcontractor who carried out work on the Cascades company’s property.
The forty-year-old met a horrible end while cleaning a concrete pump with a garden hose.
After climbing on the machinery, he would have been dragged into the pump tank. His shirt would have gotten caught in the mechanism, which was still in operation.
Device disabled
A grid limits access to the tank in normal times. As soon as it is opened, a device cuts off the pump motor.
However, it was not functional at the time of Sébastien Bolduc’s death, revealed an expertise commissioned by the CNESST, which noted other security breaches.
“In the security system, there are connections. These connections were, in the correct jargon, bypassed. They were bypassed. We took sons […]we put them in a relatively permanent way to simulate that the gate is permanently closed,” explains inspector Richard Laplante.
CNESST inspector Richard Laplante, in interview with “Le Journal”
A vagueness persists around the author of the dangerous maneuver and its exact aim. The concrete pump was purchased new in 2010. Sébastien Bolduc had used it since he started as an operator, in 2021.
“We are not here to determine when it was done or who did the bypass. We just want to understand why it happened,” underlines Jean-François Beaudry, director of the prevention and inspection service on the South Shore.
However, a report was made to the police and an investigation is still underway, confirms the Roussillon Intermunicipal Police Authority, which is trying to establish whether a criminal element taints this case.
Richard Laplante, inspector at the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST), and Jean-François Beaudry, director of the South Shore prevention and inspection service
Statement of offense
Of the four causes identified by the CNESST, we also note “deficient” management of the maintenance and inspection of safety elements, as well as “gaps” in risk management during tank cleaning.
A statement of offense was given to the employer, who “also asserts that the modifications made to the security systems were done without his knowledge,” according to the investigation report.
The police were at the scene of the accident on December 15, 2023, in Candiac.
Photo Agence QMI, Maxime Deland
In the eyes of Jean-François Beaudry, this story should serve as a wake-up call for companies in the construction industry.
“Look at your own practices. Are your machines safe or not? Do something to make sure that it is,” he says.
Pompage Élite did not wish to comment on the matter.
• The Roussillon Intermunicipal Police Agency encourages anyone who has information on this tragedy to come forward.
– With Jonathan Tremblay
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