Journal of Commerce | Jean Sorensen | August 11, 2025
Multiple serious incidents and a fatality over the past 10 years have prompted WorkSafeBC (WSBC) to issue an updated flytable-form safety video.
Andrew Kidd, director of prevention field services for WSBC, said the video was also needed as field officers were hearing of near-misses or situations where incidents could have occurred.
“There wasn’t an injury but we needed to increase the focus because the potential was there,” he said.
WSBC statistics provided, looking at 10 years up to 2024, found there have been 19 flytable incidents reported, 11 of which involved a tower crane lifting or placing the form at the time of the incident.
A record year was 2023 with the highest number – four incidents – but numbers were climbing. From 2000 to 2024, 11 of the 19 reported incidents occurred, one of which was the 2024 death of flagger Yuridia Flores at Oakridge.
Flytables or flyforms are table-like structures on adjustable legs with wheels and are used in concrete forming of the floor slabs. Once a floor slab has been poured and cured, the flytable is stripped away and used again or the leg-level dropped.
The form is then rolled to the floor’s edge of the construction floor in preparation to be craned to the new floor level above that the flytable has created so that the process can repeat.
The video walks through each phase: dropping the table, rolling it to the floor edge, lift issues and landing it on the next building level.
It highlights safeguards including exclusion zones, fall protection, engineered drawings, pre-lift meetings and effective communication with crane operators.
Kidd said when the information from field officers and incidents were analyzed, there were critical areas highlighted where problems seemed most likely.
These included ensuring the form’s legs remain undamaged or caught on materials on the floor, ensuring there was a curb stop at the building’s floor edge plus tiebacks to hold the form in place prior to crane pick-up, and a high-risk area was co-ordinating a balanced lift of the form by the crane out of one level and onto another.
“We need to focus on all aspects of the lift,” he said, ensuring all the critical areas of a crane lift are planned and communicated.
“Moving it outside of the structure is a very controlled process,” he said, adding every team member needs to know their role as the crane takes on the load.
The process of craning flytable forms and ensuring a balanced load has become more challenging today, Kidd said, as building and flytable shapes are irregular.
“There are more that are asymmetrical,” he said, as architects design structures with curves or other shapes.
The flytable’s non-traditional shape impacts not only the lift load and balance but can also impact how that flytable is placed on the next level which may include an overhang, he said.
The video stresses the need to consult with engineers on the planning and movement of flytables to mitigate risks.
While each lift is co-ordinated and planned, that plan can hit glitches and the video advises that work stop and the plan is re-evaluated for change.
“When there is change, everyone has to be aware of the change,” Kidd said, adding it can impact workers, procedure and equipment and those changes need to be communicated.
As well, Kidd believes pre-lift meetings should be held close to the lift time.
“If you are going to be lifting at 2 o’clock, then you should be meeting before and not in the morning,” he said.
While industry feedback is positive, BC Building Trades executive director Brynn Bourke sees the video as only “a piecemeal approach” into much needed crane safety.
“A much fuller conversation is needed,” she said, adding the video plays as an important reminder to contractors of their responsibility and the responsibility of those working with and lifting flytables.
“But, I actually think the real story is about crane safety. While this material is really important and has a lot of value and it fits the issue, there is a broader context of crane safety.”
B.C.’s worst flyform disaster occurred in 1981, when one broke loose during the construction of Bentall Centre’s Tower Three plunging four carpenters to their death. The investigation later revealed inadequate engineering and insufficient safety protocols played a critical role in the collapse and a major review of the construction industry’s safety standards were launched.
Council of Construction Associations president Dr. Dave Baspaly said safety in this high-risk sector of construction is indexed to the “science of knowing” what are the best practices at a given time. The video is a reflection of the best safety protocol and risk assessments that needs be followed and they result from a constant monitoring of other jurisdictions to ensure B.C.’s safety practices are rigorous and current, he said.
“We always follow the science and if we are asked to change, we will change. We are supportive of the video,” Baspaly said.
The video can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jb0a-4bm6g.