The school bus the child was riding home in collided with a bucket truck on 8e Rang Ouest while two workers were installing fiber optic cables.
During the press conference in Trois-Rivières, the CNESST inspector responsible for the file, Stéphanie Rosa, spoke of the employees’ negligence.
The accident could have been avoided by working preventively, by identifying the risks, but above all by having adequate signage, she said in an interview with the program En Direct.
A single sign indicating the truck’s presence had been installed. Specifically, according to CNESST, there should also have been cones and a signal light.
The bus driver and two young passengers were injured in the accident. One of them was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
The causes that explain the accident
Source: CNESST
CNESST asked the employer, Les entreprises québécoises d’excavation LEQEL, to provide a safe working method for resuming work and to ban use of the truck and basket until further notice.
At this time, the employer has not been able to provide CNESST with a safe method of work that complies with traffic return-to-work traffic sign regulations, CNESST said in its 40-page report.
The CNESST will forward the conclusions of its investigation to the Association of Street Sign Workers of Quebec, the Association of Installers and Signalmen of Quebec and the Association of Cooperatives of Cable Distribution and Telecommunications of Quebec, as well as to the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, to prevent further accidents of the same kind.
The Commission is also asking the Department of Transport to develop a special committee for this type of work. The report is also sent to the schools that train future workers to make them aware of the risks.
With information from Kassandra Lebel