July 28, 2008

Lack of training blamed in B.C. crane death

BRADLEY FEHR

staff writer

Scathing reports into the death of a 22-year-old crane operator blame a lack of training, among other factors, for contributing to the young man’s death, but recommend a fine rather than criminal charges.

“The operator was not sufficiently trained or experienced in crane operations to be placed in an operator’s position on this bridge,” the WorkSafeBC inspection report states.

Andrew Slobodian, an ironworker, was killed when the small carry-deck crane he was operating tipped over and killed him while he was working on the Canada Line bridge over the Fraser River earlier this year.

WorkSafeBC released an inspection report into the matter, which found several safety practices lacking at the time of the tragedy.

It followed that up by releasing an investigative report that analyzed and expanded on the findings of the first report.

The reports state that both Slobodian and his supervisor were inadequately trained for the job.

Both men received between 20 and 90 minutes of training on how to use the machinery, which wasn’t enough.

It adds that the work that Slobodian was doing was beyond his skill level and that supervision was lacking. Rizzani De Eccher, which is also known as RSL Joint Venture, was his employer and SNC-Lavalin Constructors (Pacific) Inc. is the main contractor on the project.

The report found that the official cause of the incident was that Slobodian tried to lift too much weight for the configuration of the boom and outriggers of the Shuttlelift crane, which resulted in it tipping over.

The load weights of the materials he was lifting were not known, which directly contributed to the incident.

However, the reports also list several other factors that they believe contributed to the worker’s death.

The inspection report found that several safety measures were missing from inside the crane.

It was not marked or otherwise equipped with any system to inform the operator of the current radius of the boom and that the radius would have to be measured manually.

The rated capacity of that particular crane is affected by boom extension.

Also, there were no load/range charts within the crane cab.

The report also found several other factors contributed to the incident.

“The employer failed to ensure that effective regular inspections were conducted, which resulted in unsafe working habits and procedures with the crane,” the inspection report states.

The report found that even with the frequency of hoisting line replacements, there were no qualified inspections of the crane’s operations.

It also concluded that the employer failed to ensure that the carry-deck crane was operated in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, safe work practices and occupational health and safety regulations.

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