Company director Sukhjinder Mokha fined $10,000 for worker injury in Toronto

Convicted: Sukhjinder Mokha, director of Mr. Diesel Emissions Inc., a mobile vehicle emissions testing business based in Brampton, Ontario.

Location of Workplace: A residential address on Geary Avenue in Toronto, where a roofing company was completing a roofing project.

Description of Offence: A worker employed by a roofing company was injured when a dump truck that was being tested for emissions moved, pinning the worker against a waste bin.

Date of Offence: July 24, 2018.

Date of Conviction: October 31, 2019.

Penalty Imposed:

  • Following a guilty plea, the director of Mr. Diesel Emissions Inc., Sukhjinder Mokha, was fined $10,000 in provincial offences court in Toronto by Justice of the Peace Rosanne Giulietti; Crown Counsel Marco Galluzzo.
  • The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Background:

  • The defendant, Sukhjinder Mokha, is the director of Mr. Diesel Emissions Inc., a company with a registered office in Brampton, Ontario.  Mr. Diesel Emissions Inc. is owned and solely operated by the defendant. The defendant is certified as a Drive Clean inspector and performs emissions tests on heavy duty diesel vehicles.
  • The defendant is a “director” as defined under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA). As the director, the defendant was required to comply with the requirements set out in the act. One such requirement under section 32 of the act stipulates that the director of a corporation must ensure that the corporation complies with the OHSA, including section 25(2)(h) which requires corporations to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of workers.
  • On July 24, 2018  the defendant was hired to perform a mobile vehicle emissions test on a dump truck owned by a roofing company. The testing location of the emissions test was scheduled to take place at a residential address on Geary Avenue where the roofing company was completing a roofing project.
  • The standard operating procedure for Ontario’s Drive Clean facilities sets out the rules governing the delivery of emissions tests and inspections on vehicles. Rule 3.3 specifically requires vehicles being tested to be blocked using wheel chocks.
  • On the date of the incident, the dump truck was parked at the testing location. The defendant was performing the emissions test on the dump truck but failed to block the truck with wheel chocks.
  • As a roofing company worker was sweeping waste materials between a large metal waste bin and the dump truck, the truck suddenly reversed and pinned the worker against the waste bin. The worker suffered critical injuries.
  • Mr. Diesel Emissions Inc. failed to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring wheel chocks were used to block the front and rear wheels of the dump truck while the emissions test was being performed on the vehicle. As such, the defendant, acting as the director of Mr. Diesel Emissions Inc., failed to ensure that Mr. Diesel Emissions Inc. complied with section 25(2)(h) of the OHSA and thereby contravened required duties under section 32 of the act.