Clayton Construction charged in death of oilsands operator

The drowning death of a floating excavator operator has resulted in charges being laid against a construction contractor and an oilsands company by Alberta Occupational Health and Safety.

staff writer

EDMONTON

The drowning death of a floating excavator operator has resulted in charges being laid against a construction contractor and an oilsands company by Alberta Occupational Health and Safety.

Richard Boyd Boughner, 47, died on Sept 3, 2008 on a construction site at an oilsands project in northern Alberta, after the floating excavator he was operating flipped and sank three metres to the bottom of a tailings pond.

Boughner was cleaning debris, including logs and muskeg, about 15 metres from the shore at the Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL) Horizon oilsands site, which is 70 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.

He was employed by Saskatchewan-based Clayton Construction and was operating a Caterpillar 235, an amphibious excavator.

CNRL had to call in divers to recover the body.

Seven charges have been laid against Clayton by Alberta Occupational Health and Safety, which include the failure to maintain the health and safety of a worker.

The other charges focus on mechanical-related and training issues with the equipment, such as the failure to operate equipment in accordance with manufacturer’s specifications.

The safety authority laid two charges against CNRL for failing to monitor the contractor’s safety performance and compliance with the safety code. At the time of the incident, the Horizon site was in the process of starting up full operations. The company had completed its safety orientation for all project employees and contractors, as well as systems and start-up training for staff.

Operations at the tailings pond were temporarily suspended following the fatality.

Two temporary workers from China died at the Horizon site in April 2007, when the roof of a massive storage tank collapsed.

Temporary foreign workers, welder Ge Genbao, 27, and electrical engineer Lui Hongliang, 33, were welding the wall structure inside a massive storage tank when the roof support structure collapsed.