British Columbia and Alberta are both gearing up programs designed to encourage drivers to be aware of, and careful around, workers who toil along the side of the road.

In British Columbia, a pilot project campaign called “Cone Zone,” was launched on June 14 by a group of more than a dozen organizations, including the BC Construction Safety Alliance, the BC Flagging Association, Ministry of Transportation and WorkSafeBC. “Cone Zone” will try to expand its focus beyond construction workers, by also encouraging drivers to keep an eye out for anyone who works roadside, including landscapers, traffic control workers, tow truck drivers, utility workers, emergency personnel and others.

The campaign includes both radio and print media, and will ask drivers to reduce speed, avoiding distraction while driving, and develop greater respect for the roadside as a workplace. The messages will also provide safe driving tips in a “cone zone,” including careful planning of routes, allowing extra travel time, staying below posted speed limits, especially those in work zones, putting away cell phones or other electronic devices, and getting to know work zone signs.

More information about the campaign can be found at www.worksafebc.com or www.BCAATSF.ca.

In Alberta, the Partners in Road Construction Safety (PIRCS) and the provincial government have again teamed up to remind motorists to be patient and drive safely through road construction sites this season, through their campaign, which features the slogan, “Don’t RIP Through Construction Zones” slogan. Their campaign suggests that accidents in these zones are avoidable, if drivers are slowing down and paying close attention to warning signs and flag people.

The Alberta government has been working for years to try to reduce the number of accidents in work zones, yet 2008 saw the highest numbers of accidents and fatalities in construction zones ever, with 1072 accidents resulting in 229 injuries and killing seven. The numbers seem to be going in the right direction, however. In 2009, there were 952 accidents in such work zones, resulting in 187 injuries and killing three. PIRCS hopes their efforts will reduce the numbers even further.

The PIRCS website, located at http://www.dont-rip.ca/, features road construction locations and safety tips. They have spent nearly $3 million for radio and television advertising, billboards, and signage in construction zones since 2003.

According to a preliminary report by WorkSafeBC, a worker who died two days after he fell 14 metres while working on the sails at Canada Place on Dec. 2 “was not using a personal fall protection system” at the time of the accident.

Apparently, the 30-year-old worker, Diego Herrera, was wearing a safety harness, but that harness was unattached  when he fell through what the report describes as a “mouse hole” in the sails.

An inspection report taken at the work site also noted a number of violations of safety regulations at the work site, including ropes, straps, webbing, electrical cords and construction debris around the mouse hole in violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. The report made it clear that there were grounds for imposing an administrative penalty against Birdair Inc. of Amherst, N.Y, the company that was hired to replace the sails at Canada Place by Ledcor Construction Ltd., which is managing the project on behalf of Canada Place Corporation.

The report read, “The employer did not have a fall protection plan for the sealing up of the mouse hole. The mouse hole was not guarded or guard-railed. The area in front of the mouse hole had many slip and trip hazards.”

No further action will be taken, however, until WorkSafeBC’s investigation of the incident is complete.

WorkSafeBC regulations stipulate that an employer must have a fall protection system in place when work is being done at heights of 3 metres or more. The $21-million project to replace the sails — originally erected in 1984 — began in July 2010 and is expected to be completed later this year.

Texting while driving is a bad idea when you’re alone in your car. But in an age when everyone seems to have a camera or video camera on their person at all times, you have to wonder about someone who goes even farther.

AToronto bus driver faces disciplinary, up to and including firing, after a passenger took a photo of him texting while operating a bus. The vehicle carried approximately 30 passengers and travelling at approximately 50 kilometres per hour at the time the photo was taken, according to the passenger-photographer.

The Toronto Transit Commission has made it clear that, in addition to being illegal, it considers such an incident as a serious breach of public safety and commission rules, and is taking this ”extremely seriously.”

Texting while driving has been illegal on Ontario roads since October 2009 and violators face fines of up to $500. But beyond that, it violates a TTC policy that was in place long before the Ontario law took effect.

The passenger who took the photo says he doesn’t want the driver to lose his job, but he also doesn’t want people texting while driving, either. He said that several passengers saw the driver texting, but no one else bothered to say anything to the driver.

This isn’t the first time a TTC employee has been caught off-guard by someone with a camera. Last January, someone photographed a fare collector sleeping on the job. Before that, a passenger took video of a driver engaged in a prolonged coffee break while passengers were on the bus, and the bus was left idling.

At an annual meeting held on January 16 and 17 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, federal, provincial and territorial labour ministers discussed a number of issues and reaffirmed their continuing commitment to safe workplaces, to protect workers and employers.

The get-together was co-hosted by the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Canada’s Labour Minister, and the Honourable Jennifer Howard, Minister of Labour and Immigration for Manitoba.

Minister Raitt asserted that the Canadian Government’s top priority was the economy and that “safe and healthy workplaces boost productivity and innovation,” and that “the well-being of workers and employers are key to the success and performance of Canada’s economy.”

According to Minister Howard, “Safe and healthy working environments do not just happen, they require a commitment by governments and everyone at the workplace. … Manitoba has long enjoyed a reputation as a leader in workplace health and safety issues and we want to continue to build on our successes.”

The meeting included discussions of Canada’s international labour activities, and endorsed a renewed strategy for Canada’s work as part of the International Labour Organization. They agreed to work together to develop programs that use social media and other tools to enhance the occupational health and safety of young workers.  They also participated in panel discussions regarding the evolution of work and possible long-range labor policy, with an emphasis on labour relations, employment standards, and mental health in the workplace.

The labour ministers’ meeting is an annual event, but ongoing work continues throughout the year, through the Canadian Association of Administrators of Labour Legislation (CAALL). Established in 1938, CAALL is an association of federal-provincial-territorial departments of labour and heads of occupational health and safety agencies.

There has been a rash of accidents involving snowplows in Saskatchewan lately. The latest incident involves a provincial snowplow that was hit  by a semi-trailer on the Trans-Canada Highway on Sunday afternoon, January 16. It was actually the third such incident in less than two weeks.

According to the Highways Ministry, the latest accident occurred during whiteout conditions near Balgonie. The semi swerved and hit the snowplow on the right rear side, causing extensive damage to both vehicles. Neither driver was injured.

That particular crash followed a more serious accident on Highway 40 near Shellbrook on Friday morning, January 14, in which a snowplow operator was plowing in the southbound lanes of the highway when a northbound car crossed into the wrong lane and hit the snowplow head on. The driver of the car in that accident was treated for minor injuries, while two passengers — a woman and a small child — received non-life-threatening injuries.

Another snowplow was hit by a car around noon on Jan. 6. In that incident, the operator had been plowing on Highway 19 near Elbow when he was rear-ended.  According to the Ministry’s report, the driver had entered the whiteout created by the plow before the crash.

Here are some basic safety tips for all drivers when operating near snowplows:

• Stay alert! If you’re on a major road and it’s snowing, there are likely to be plows working.
• Note that snowplows travel slower than posted speeds, and always yield to them.
• Remember that a snowplow weighs far more than a car, and a crash is more likely to do more damage to you and your vehicle than the snowplow and its operator.
• Give snowplow operators plenty of room to do their jobs.
• Never drive into a snow cloud.
• Never use cruise control on wet or icy roads.
• Slow down and be patient. Allow for a safe distance between your vehicle and a snowplow.

Wait until the snowplow pulls over (they do so every 10km) to pass.

Last summer, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) began testing a fully mobile work zone barrier system during a concrete repair project on Highway 115, southwest of Peterborough.

The new system is fully mobile, consisting of a wheeled unit, which is pulled by a standard truck tractor. The unit can be deployed relatively quickly and, because of its reversible axles, it can easily be reconfigured for either right or left applications in about half an hour.

These new mobile units, which are bright orange to alert drivers that road work is taking place, reduce the need for road crews to set up a Temporary Concrete Barrier (TCB), which means they can finish road work and reopen a lane in less time.  By adding panels, the size of the work zone can be expanded to as much as 31 metres, and the systems are also customizable, including such options as portable message signs, auxiliary lighting and a privacy barrier. The unit meets U.S. National Cooperative Highway Research Program 350 TL-3 crash test requirements, as well.

The mobile work zone barriers increase the safety of maintenance and construction crews, according to a number of test projects, and past use by others. The state of California has been deploying such mobile barriers since 2004, for example, and they have proven to be very time effective and safe. California refers to its mobile barriers as “Balsi Beams,” because they were developed after worker Mark Balsi was killed by a motorist while picking up trash along the highway. California’s Balsi Beam was among those demonstrated to MTO officials at a conference several years ago, which led to last summer’s trial.

Construction crews have so far found it easy to adapt to the devices, and feel very confident working behind them.  The Highway 115 trial project proved the units to be so effective that the contractor’s schedule was advanced, and work was completed ahead of time, because they were able to eliminate the work necessary in placing and removing the TCB.

Due to the success of the initial mobile barrier trial, MTO expects to expand their use for projects such as pothole filling, pavement testing, crack sealing, bridge and guide rail repairs, and even accident scene investigations.

Photos of the mobile work zone barrier system in action can be found here.

On Tuesday, January 18, emergency crews from La Ronge rescued a 61-year-old worker after he had been trapped for more than eight hours in a five-story chute that leads down to a rock crusher at a northern Saskatchewan gold mill.

RCMP responded to a call from the Jolu gold mill, which is operated by Golden Band Resources, Inc. and is located approximately 130 km north of La Ronge, shortly before 3 p.m. The worker, who is employed by Kitsaki Procon Joint Venture as a welder, was working above the crushing machine when the ground beneath him gave way. He slid down the chute and was pinned against the wall, buried in ore from the waist down.

According to the La Ronge fire department, the space was so small that Arsenault had to do most of the actual digging himself, with rescue crews lifting the buckets of ore out as he did so. They felt they had to move carefully to prevent further problems. This made the rescue effort was long and grueling. Eventually, when the worker was able to get one leg free, he squeezed his other leg out, and rescuers were able to use a harness to lift him out the rest of the way.

Finally, at about 11:30 p.m., the worker was above ground, where he was taken to hospital and treated for hypothermia and mild frostbite, and then released.

Operations at the mill were suspended Wednesday, as they looked into the cause of the incident.

The large number of wildfires that are burning across large swaths of forest  British Columbia have sparked major concerns with regard to the occupational safety and health impact of such natural disasters, because the toll could end up being huge. Currently, more than 100 active fires are burning throughout the province.

The smoke in some areas has been quite intense, and has at times drifted far enough east that Edmonton and Calgary have been forced to call smoke advisories. Workers throughout the province, especially those working close to the affected areas, have suffered from headaches, respiratory issues, sore throats and upset stomachs. There have also been cases in which loggers have suffered near-misses, because they could not see machinery up ahead due to poor visibility, and several contractors have watched as machines burned up in the fire.

The British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range has recommended voluntary shutdowns or going to night hauling to take advantage of cooler temperatures, but that doesn’t address the issue of smoke, so a large number of companies remain shut down completely, and have no idea when they can resume operations, and do so safely.

WebSafety, Inc. has announced the release of a mobile application they call CellSafety, which should go a long way toward making the roadways safer for everyone.  You see, this particular application actually disables texting and emailing from a moving vehicle.

The company recently increased the application’s compatibility to more than 60 smart phones in the United States and has now expanded CellSafety so that it works on the Bell Mobility and Telus networks in Canada.

CellSafety uses proprietary technology to detect when a vehicle is moving at speeds of more than 10 mph and then prohibits the driver from sending or reading text and email messages, or even using the phone’s web browser.

Texting and emailing while driving is considered one of the most dangerous distractions facing drivers today, and new laws have been passed all over as a response to this hazard. More than 30 U.S. states and seven Canadian provinces now have laws to prevent distracted driving, and President Obama signed an Executive Order banning federal employees from texting while operating government vehicles. WebSafety developed CellSafety as a solution to the problem.

The CellSafety mobile application is available starting at $9.99 per month, with substantial discounts available for commercial and governmental accounts, and can be purchased by visiting www.mywebsafety.com.

Nearly two years after three of their workers were killed and two received major brain injuries after being overcome by toxic fumes, the operators of a mushroom farm near Vancouver were finally charged with a series of offences under British Columbia’s labour laws last week.

A total of 29 charges under the Workers Compensation Act and Occupational Health and Safety Regulations were brought against two companies; A-1 Mushroom Substratum Ltd., H.V. Truong Ltd.; and four individuals — Ha Qua Troung, Vy Tri Trong, Van Thi Truong and Thinh Huu Doan — who are either officers or directors of those companies.  Among the charges were; failing to ensure the health and safety of workers;  failing to fix hazardous conditions; failing to ensure workers are aware of safety hazards; inadequate training; and failing to create an adequate safety plan.

The incident that led to the charges occurred on Sept. 5, 2008, when a group of workers at a mushroom farm and composting plant in Langley were overcome by toxic fumes in a shed. What happened inside that shed set off what WorkSafeBC considers to be one the most complex investigations in the agency’s history.

According to investigators, a pipe carrying a compost mixture broke and released a toxic gas. Two men were overcome by the fumes relatively quickly, and when co-workers came to their aid, several of them were also overcome. Three workers died, including one of the rescuers. One worker is still in a coma and another was left unable to speak or hear.

The New Democrats and the British Columbia Federation of Labour, among others, have called for a public inquiry into overall farmworker safety, and also called for changes to the province’s agriculture industry. The Federation claims that the company offered a single pamphlet on working in confined spaces at the work site. Unfortunately, the pamphlet was available only in English, despite the fact that the workers involved were Vietnamese-Canadians, and spoke very little English.

This particular incident isn’t the only case in recent years involving the deaths of British Columbia farmworkers. In March 2007, three farmworkers were killed when a 15-passenger van carrying 17 people flipped onto a concrete median on the Trans-Canada Highway near Abbotsford. In that case, the deaths were ruled accidental, although the coroner’s jury made18 recommendations, including ensuring farmworkers are better informed about their rights.