Table cart pins removed by employee did not cause workplace death, engineering expert testifies

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During cross-examination, Pilosio Canada’s lawyer, Jonathan Frustaglio, asked what role the employee, in applying force to the cart, played in the cart’s collapse. Rogowsky said if the employee had not removed the pins, the cart would not have collapsed.

He said the cart design is missing “travel stops” that would prevent instability, and the axles were turned to the point that the wheel track was too narrow and the cart tipped over — a warning that should have been included in Pilosio’s written materials.

The field-fabricated pins that Banff workers used to lock and move the cart were “functionally equivalent” to the standard Pilosio-issued pins, Rogowsky concluded.

Pilosio Canada did not design or manufacture the cart — Pilosio SPA did, Pilosio’s CEO testified on Monday. Frustaglio asked Rogowsky if he was aware that Pilosio Canada did not draft any of the written materials that Rogowsky criticized, either.

Rogowsky said he was aware that Pilosio Canada offered training on how to use the cart, and agreed that in-person training is just as important as written documentation.

On Tuesday, Pilosio’s expert, forensic engineer Robert Sparling, testified that failing to have a travel stop pin in the cart led to the accident. Under cross-examination, he said there were no warnings on the cart indicating that both pins must be used at the same time, and that it must be operated by two people.

bmcadam@postmedia.com

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