Several hundred traffic flaggers from across the Lower Mainland gathered over the weekend for a candlelight vigil to remember a female colleague, who died after being run over by a dump truck at a construction site in Duncan, B.C.
“It was absolutely amazing,” said B.C. Flagging Association spokesperson Diane Herback.
“You should have seen all the road closure trucks. It was so heartwarming that everyone was in tears.”
The B.C. Flagging Association held the vigil on the evening of Oct. 29 in Holland Park in Surrey, B.C.
It was held in honour of Maggie Feeley, 29.
She died on Oct. 23, two days after being struck by a reversing truck while conducting traffic on a paving construction site in Duncan.
Herback said a group of 30 to 40 trucks representing Ansan Traffic Control, Universal Flagging, B.C. Road Safe and Go Traffic convoyed to the park with their lights flashing.
The vehicles lined 100th Avenue and King George Boulevard, near the park.
The vigil was attended by at least 200 people.
The gathering including lane technicians and flaggers in reflective clothing, as well as anybody wanting to support the family and recognize Feeley’s death.
“It was a great turnout,” said Tammy Sampson, director of operations for B.C. Road Safe Inc. and cofounder of the B.C. Flagging Association.
“They had some very nice displays with pictures, tables and posters to sign, which will be given to the family. They also had four cones covered in black tape to symbolize the four traffic control people that have been killed since 2008.”
Feeley, was hit by a reversing truck that was pushing a pup trailer and pinned under the truck’s wheels.
Firefighters used inflatable balloons to lift the truck off the woman and she was immediately taken by ambulance to Cowichan District Hospital with critical injuries.
Later, she was airlifted to Victoria General hospital, where she died after being taken off of life support.
The vigil raised money to support Feeley’s husband and three children.
The B.C. Flagging Association will be presenting the money to the family on Nov. 10.
Feeley is the fourth B.C. flagger to die on the job in the past five years.
Donald Cain, 49, was struck and killed by a car in July 2010, while controlling traffic at a construction site on Lougheed Highway in Mission.
Cain, who was working as a TCP for Pro-Safe Traffic Service, was taken to Abbotsford Regional Hospital and pronounced dead upon arrival.
Terry Mitchell, 52, an experienced flagger with Valley Traffic Systems Inc., was struck and killed by a pickup truck, while working near Fort Langley in 2008.
The truck was driven by Melle Pool, an 88-year-old visually impaired man.
Pool was driving without a valid driver’s licence, which was not renewed in 2001 because doctors said his poor eyesight made him unfit for the road.
Members of the traffic control person community in B.C. were outraged that Pool was not given jail time.
The BC Coroners Service, WorkSafeBC and RCMP Traffic Services continue to investigate the most current fatality.
WorkSafeBC is investigating employer and worker compliance with respect to mobile equipment and traffic control requirements, instruction, training, and supervision, as well as human factors that may have influenced what occurred.
The BC Flagging Association was established in 2010, in response to multiple injuries to flaggers in 2009.
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed