Two Whitehorse residents and their employers went on trial Monday for an incident two years ago where a local tire shop employee was crushed by a truck he was working on.

Defence lawyers for the four parties — Frank Taylor and Paul Bubiak, supervisors with North 60 Petro and Integra Tire, respectively — appeared in territorial court for the first day of an anticipated three-week trial.

Fourteen charges had been laid stemming from the accident at Integra Tire on Nov. 15, 2011, which left Dennis Chabot dead.

The 34-year-old had been putting slits in the tires of a semi truck to give it better traction on ice and snow. After completing the work, he told his supervisor, Bubiak, the tri-axle vehicle was ready for pick-up.

He said he would do a final check on the truck before the owner came by for it. When an employee arrived from North 60, he found the vehicle idling, climbed into it and drove out of the garage.

Chabot was partially under the truck and suffered fatal injuries when it moved.

The driver saw what had happened only when he looked in the rearview mirror and saw Chabot lying on the ground.

Wayne Smyth, a safety officer with the territorial workers'compensation board, took the witness stand Monday – the first of more than two dozen expected witnesses.

He recalled responding around 3:45 p.m. to an RCMP call about "a serious incident” at Integra Tire — located off Two Mile Hill on Industrial Road and listed in court documents as Yukon Tire Centre Inc.

Arriving at the yard behind the garage, Smyth saw the parked truck and "a pool of red substance on the ground, and I believed that to be blood.”

He also saw a glove and cap lying in the snow, later confirmed to be Chabot's.

Smyth noted "scrapes and scratches ... around (Chabot's) upper body, like an imprint, almost .... From the information I had, it was my impression that these were tire tracks.”

Smyth elaborated on the grisly scene: "I'm not a physician, but it appeared to me that there were severe skull fractures.

"The arms of his glasses were actually embedded into the deceased's head ... on both sides, actually,” he told the court.

Smyth and an RCMP officer took separate statements from various employees in the aftermath.

He also requested documents related to Integra Tire's safe work procedures, hazard assessments, injury reports and other information.

"There was no witness to this incident, which complicates the matter,” Smyth said.

The Crown spent much of the first day submitting evidence to the court, including a large steel torque wrench, hydraulic jack and wheel chalks.

These exhibits roughly resembled the equipment used on the day of the incident, but were not actually taken from the scene or owned by the companies or individuals on trial.

The courtroom sat in silence as the Crown played 20 minutes of footage taken from three Integra Tire security cameras. The fatal incident itself was not shown.

The footage revealed an employee dialing 911 at around 3:20 p.m., with an RCMP car pulling into the back lot roughly five minutes later.

Taylor is facing two charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act:

• that, as a supervisor, he failed to adequately train a worker in the safe operation of the truck; and

• that he failed to ensure that an equipment operator not move this equipment when his view of the workplace is obstructed.

Bubiak is charged with the same offence related to training.

He is also facing three similar charges to his employer, Integra Tire, for allegedly failing to immobilize the truck and control it when it was shut down for maintenance work.

Integra Tire is facing two additional charges related to its safety process: failing to develop safe, effective lockout procedures, and failing to explain those procedures verbally and in writing.

North 60 is facing three charges.

Officials claim the company failed to:

• adequately train a worker in the safe operation of the truck,;

• ensure a worker had demonstrated competency to a supervisor; and

• ensure the operator did not move the truck until precautions were taken to protect workers from injury.

No criminal charges have been laid.

Taylor and Bubiak would not face jail time if convicted of any charges.

Chabot had come to the Yukon about a decade prior to his death from Sherbrooke, in Quebec's Eastern Townships.