Two cranes were brought in to deal with an emergency lift at Coquitlam Centre mall last week, after a garbage truck driver failed to lower the bin of his vehicle and hit a beam in a loading bay.
The truck hit a 10 foot by 4-foot steel and masonry beam at about 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 2, which crashed down on the cab of the truck.
The truck knocked the beam off its brick supports.
The incident happened after the SmithRite truck arrived at the mall to pick up a load of garbage.
The man was able to call emergency crews, so the police, fire and WorkSafeBC soon arrived on the scene.
The driver was extricated from the cab of the truck using the Jaws of Life.
He was transported to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
In response to the incident, the Coquitlam Centre mall made an emergency call to Eagle West Cranes at about 11:30 a.m.
A supervisor from the company arrived on the scene within an hour and started to develop a safety plan for the removal of the beam.
Eagle West sent two hydraulic cranes, one 120 ton and the other 200 ton, to the Coquitlam Centre to undertake the dual lift.
The cranes arrived at the scene at about 5:30 p.m. and completed the lift by about 2 a.m.
The total weight of the lift was 44,000 lbs and 36,000 lbs of this total was brick.
The beam was 70 feet long.
Once the beam was taken off the truck, it was split in two and taken away.
It was an architectural feature, so the beam wasn’t a structural part of the mall.
For this reason, the beam will not be replaced.
Police haven’t provided an update on the condition of the truck driver or the extent of his injures.
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