Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) officers in Alberta and B.C. are investigating two separate incidents, involving the death of a grader operator at a construction site in Calgary and the electrocution of a young worker at a project on Vancouver Island.
“A worker was using a pair of pliers to jump start a grader, when the equipment started,” said Lisa Glover, spokesperson for Alberta OH&S.
“The worker got caught between the two tires and was fatally injured.”
The first incident happened at about 7:30 a.m. on June 24 at 52nd Street and Auburn Bay Boulevard S.E. in Calgary.
The 38 year-old man was employed by Kidco Construction. The prime contractor on the project is Marmot Concrete.
OH&S officers issued a stop use order on the grader and are leading the investigation into the incident.
The second incident happened just after 2 p.m. on June 18 on the Chemainus River Bridge replacement project, on Vancouver Island, between Ladysmith and Duncan.
“A young worker suffered an electrical shock while working on the deconstruction of the Chemainus Bridge near Duncan BC,” said WorkSafeBC’s Alexandra Skinner-Reynolds.
“He was assisting in guiding a bridge panel into place, which was being lifted by a crane, when the crane came in contact with an overhead power line. The worker was taken to hospital and released hours later,” said Skinner-Reynolds.
“He was extremely lucky.”
She said WorkSafeBC’s Fatal and Serious Investigations team is investigating the incident because there was an extremely high risk for serious injury.
The investigations team will be looking at the following factors for causes of this incident:
Limits of approach: For this voltage amount, according to the regulation, equipment is not allowed to go within 10 feet of power lines. Was this regulation complied with?
Training and education of workers;
Co-ordination with the electrical contractors onsite
The general contractor on the $3.4 million bridge replacement project is Jacob Bros. Construction Ltd.
Construction of the project was scheduled to start in November 2012, but was delayed until June for safety and engineering reasons.
BC Hydro crews had earlier hit rock when preparing to erect new poles and needed more time for power-pole relocation.
The project involves the demolition of the old, wooden bridge and the construction of a new 80 metre bridge crossing, as well as preloading for about 300 metres of two lane roadway, while maintaining traffic.
It also includes roadworks for about 300 metres of two lane open shoulder paved roadway, drainage including ditch construction and culvert adjustments with riprap.
Construction began on June 17 and is scheduled for completion on Oct. 17.
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