Metro Vancouver fined by WorkSafeBC after near-fatal worksite accident – BC

WorkSafeBC has fined Metro Vancouver nearly $170,000 for “high-risk violations” following a near-fatal incident at a job site in New Westminster last year.

Workers were completing a valve replacement project in a confined space while working on a water main on March 15, 2024.

While using pry bars to help a crane lift a gearbox, the gearbox released and sprang upward, which could have been fatal, according to WorkSafeBC.

It says it identified several high-risk violations, including a failure to plan and identify hazards before beginning the operation.

WorkSafeBC also said that a lack of training and adequate supervision were all factors in the incident.

“This poor worker was crushed by a large piece of machinery coming loose and landing on or flying at him, and only through good luck that he survived, to be honest. It’s a terrible accident,” Bill Tielman with the Greater Vancouver Regional District Employees Union said.

“But this isn’t the first time Metro Vancouver has been fined by WorkSafeBC.”

The BC Conservatives also weighed in.

“When we’re talking about confined spaces, you need proper training and standard operating procedures and you absolutely need supervisory oversight and that’s what was missing here,” Kiel Giddens, the BC Conservative Labour critic, said.

In 2020, Metro Vancouver was slapped with a near-record fine from WorkSafeBC over 2017 sewer work deemed dangerous.

According to a WorkSafeBC summary of the penalty, Metro Vancouver crews were installing siphon gates inside a sewer line, which is considered a confined space.

However, it said crews failed to properly clear the work with WorkSafeBC and conducted the work without following safe procedures for confined space entry.

Metro Vancouver was fined $637,415.60.

Metro Vancouver says it “has taken comprehensive corrective actions to strengthen workplace safety, including enhanced training, updated procedures, and improved supervisor awareness specific to this kind of work to ensure workers are informed, trained, and protected.”

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