DEAD MAN’S FLATS, Alta. – The Alberta Ministry of Labour (MOL) recently fined the owner of an excavating company $30,000, plus a $4,500 victim fine surcharge, for his role in a trench accident that permanently injured an employee on June 21, 2014. According to an undated announcement on the MOL website, a utility crew was installing a water pipeline in Dead Man’s Flats that day, when the wall of a straight-cut, 3.9-metre-deep trench caved in on a worker. The utility crew extracted the worker, who was transported to the hospital with permanent, life-altering injuries. Last April 29, the MOL charged V.J. Bishop Excavating Ltd. and its owner, Vincent John Bishop, with violating the provincial Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Code (COHSN, July 5). On Jan. 10, Bishop pleaded guilty to contravening Section 2(2)(a) of the Act. Charges against V.J. Bishop and another firm involved in the installation, Bremner Engineering and Construction Ltd., were dropped, the MOL stated.