March 25, 2024
Construction incident summaries are based on information obtained as soon as possible after the incidents: they are preliminary and subject to change. Details have been edited to protect workers’ privacy.
See additional summaries online.
| Injury Type: Close call | |
| Core Activity: Excavator operation / Paving services or asphalt manufacture | |
| Location: Lower Mainland | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Mar | ID Number: 2024165370012 |
| As an excavator passed between two utility poles, the excavator’s arm contacted the lower neutral line. This resulted in damage to the distribution lines (12 kV) and a power shutdown in the area. The utility provider attended the site and repaired the system. No injuries were reported. | |
| Injury Type: Close call | |
| Core Activity: Crane operation | |
| Location: Vancouver Island/Coastal B.C. | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Mar | ID Number: 2024192870012 |
| A tower crane picked up a load of bundled plywood from the second-level outrigger at a construction project to deposit it on the third level. During the process of depositing the load on the third level, the jib of the tower crane contacted the fourth boom section of a mobile crane. | |
| Injury Type: Close call | |
| Core Activity: Crane operation, mechanized tunnel boring construction | |
| Location: Lower Mainland | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Feb | ID Number: 2024182130003 |
| A rough-terrain mobile crane was performing a test lift when the nylon rigging straps failed. Due to the sudden loss of load, the rigging lines and headache ball sprang back. No injuries were reported. | |
| Injury Type: Fatal | |
| Core Activity: Crane operation | |
| Location: Lower Mainland | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Feb | ID Number: 2024178050003 |
| An on-site hammerhead crane was flying tables from the 27th floor of a concrete highrise when a table detached from the crane, striking multiple points on the building before striking a worker on the ground. | |
| Injury Type: Possible injury to head and neck | |
| Core Activity: Land clearing, excavation, or site surface preparation / Building management, building rental, or mobile home parks and strata corporations | |
| Location: Lower Mainland | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Feb | ID Number: 2024188230011 |
| As a dump truck was dumping a load of construction waste at a landfill, the truck flipped onto its side. The driver was able to exit the cab of the truck. | |
| Injury Type: Fractured leg | |
| Core Activity: Welding services or ornamental metal installation | |
| Location: Lower Mainland | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Feb | ID Number: 2024195040001 |
| A worker was welding a steel column (16 feet long, weighing 1,000 pounds) on their workbench. As they attempted to rotate the piece manually, it fell, striking one of the worker’s legs. | |
| Injury Type: Multiple injuries | |
| Core Activity: Steep slope roofing | |
| Location: Vancouver Island/Coastal B.C. | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Feb | ID Number: 2024154970005 |
| A roofer working on a new home slipped on the metal roof and fell 12 feet to packed gravel. | |
| Injury Type: Bruising, soreness | |
| Core Activity: Concrete reinforcing | |
| Location: Lower Mainland | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Feb | ID Number: 2024195020003 |
| As a rough-terrain lift truck was loading rebar onto a trailer the load of rebar slipped off the lift truck’s forks and struck a worker. | |
| Injury Type: Violence in the workplace (2 workers) | |
| Core Activity: Structural concrete forming / Concrete placing, finishing, surfacing, or repair | |
| Location: Lower Mainland | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Feb | ID Number: 2024203080007 |
| Two workers (one of them a young worker) engaged in physical violence at a workplace. | |
| Injury Type: Multiple fractures | |
| Core Activity: Industrial, commercial, institutional, or highrise residential contracting or construction | |
| Location: Northern B.C. | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Feb | ID Number: 2024198010002 |
| While sheeting the deck of a commercial construction project, a worker fell about 20 feet, landing on flat ground. | |
| Injury Type: Injury to lower body | |
| Core Activity: Crane operation | |
| Location: Lower Mainland | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Feb | ID Number: 2024200670001 |
| A worker was washing a 160-ton crane truck. The worker was standing on a raised deck and using an extendable brush. As the worker descended the crane using the attached ladder, they slipped and fell about 5 feet, landing on concrete. | |
| Injury Type: Fractures | |
| Core Activity: Steep slope roofing | |
| Location: Vancouver Island/Coastal B.C. | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Feb | ID Number: 2024155270001 |
| A worker was installing a fall protection anchor on a second-storey roof (4:12 slope) covered in frost. The worker lost traction, slid down the building paper on the roof, and free-fell about 8 feet to a lower roof. The worker then slid down the installed steel roofing and free-fell about 15 feet, landing in a narrow 3-foot-deep trench. | |
| Injury Type: Multiple fractures (1 worker) | |
| Core Activity: Concrete reinforcing | |
| Location: Lower Mainland | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Feb | ID Number: 2024194920002 |
| Workers were on top of a pier, about 100 feet up, installing rebar for the pier cap. A mobile crane was hoisting and repositioning rebar bundles while some workers installed and tied the rebar into the mat for the pier cap. A bundle of about 30 pieces of rebar (size 20M, with 180-degree “candy cane” hooks on one end) was rigged to be hoisted. As the crane hoisted the bundle, the hook ends became entangled with a loose piece of the same kind of rebar, whose no-hook end (tail end) was lodged in the mat. When the hoisted bundle was about 4 feet off the working surface, the tail end dislodged from the mat and the loose piece struck a nearby worker. | |
| Injury Type: Close call | |
| Core Activity: Structural concrete forming | |
| Location: Lower Mainland | |
| Date of Incident: 2024-Feb | ID Number: 2024178050002 |
| As concrete was being placed via a concrete pump truck into a one-sided wall form (10 feet high, about 8 inches wide), the structure collapsed. | |