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.

A new project was unveiled by WorkSafeBC last week, one that hopes to get the word out about the importance of injury prevention at construction sites throughout British Columbia. If the project proves a success, that message will be difficult to miss, since the goal is to set up workplace signs everywhere to remind everyone working on construction sites to take safety precautions.

But WorkSafeBC is taking this project a step further than just promoting safety within the worksite itself. They are actually hoping to expand the scope of the message into the rest of the community at large by placing signs in areas, such as fences, that can be seen by the general public, and not just the construction workers themselves. This way, WorkSafeBC hopes to remind everyone to stay safe on the job, wherever they may work.

In 2010, WorkSafeBC saw 14,405 injury claims from construction sites across the province. Of that number, 32 of the injuries led to worker deaths, which is the largest number of work-related fatalities in any industry sector.

WorkSafeBC launched the project in partnership with The Community Against Preventable Injuries, otherwise known as Preventable, as well as a number of employers, including Stuart Olson Dominion, ITC Construction Group, Kindred Construction Ltd., Lafarge Aggregate & Concrete, and PCL Construction.

A British Columbia roofing worker for Weather Tight Supplies died last week after he fell through a skylight at the vacation home of former provincial premier Gordon Campbell.

The worker, Dave Lesko of Sechelt, was working on renovations to the vacant waterfront property in Halfmoon Bay, when the accident occurred around 1 p.m. According to neighbors, at least two fire department trucks and two ambulances arrived quickly, and an air ambulance took the injured worker to a Vancouver hospital, where he died from his injuries the next day.

WorkSafeBC is conducting an investigation, as is Weather Tight Supplies, who is required to conduct its own investigation and report the findings to WorkSafeBC. The twin investigations will focus on determining the nature of his activity, what he was doing and how and why he fell.

Four British Columbia high school students have won awards in WorkSafeBC’s 6th annual student safety video contest.

This year’s contest featured the theme “Overexposed! What you may not see can kill you,” which focused on hidden hazards that can turn out to be deadly. The theme was chosen in order to educate young workers that exposure to some hazards today can have an impact later in life.

In all, the competition featured 42 submissions received from 19 schools and 145 participating students. The contest was open to all high-school students, with a teacher providing project supervision and final approval of the video. The entries were judged based on their impact, their safety message, original creative concept, and technical execution. Judges also considered how well they provided a youth perspective on workplace safety, and how well safety messages targeted young workers and their peer groups.

The first place team in each category will share $500, with their school receiving another $2,000. The second place teams each win $500, and $1,500 for the schools, and the honourable mention team receives $500.

The winners are:

Grades 8–10
First Place: Noise, by Port Moody Secondary School
Second Place: Why endanger your life?, by Ladysmith Secondary School

Grades 11–12
First Place: Open your eyes, by Penticton Secondary School
Second Place: A mouldy surprise, by Chatelech Secondary School (Sechelt)
Honourable Mention: Distraction, by Chatelech Secondary School (Sechelt)

The winning videos can be viewed here. After last year’s contest, more than 10,000 YouTube visitors saw the winning videos.

According to the latest WorkSafeBC report, four Vancouver Island companies have been fined by WorkSafeBC for unsafe working conditions or practices, including several that didn’t necessarily end in injury or tragedy.

The largest of the fines was the $15,000 assessed on Dogwood Street 7-Eleven Canada Inc in Campbell River for what they referred to as “numerous health and safety violations.” The report noted that the business had failed to ensure that records of worker injuries and exposures were kept on site; that it had failed to provide appropriate emergency washing facilities for workers who may have been exposed to harmful materials; and that it failed to provide proper instruction to its workers as to how to report and document incidents of workplace violence.

Cei Industries Ltd., also of Campbell River, was fined $5,373 for allowing its staff to work too close to live high-voltage power lines. WorkSafeBC said the company allowed work to continue on a structural steel building that was too close to live power lines, in violation of the requirement to maintain the minimum applicable distance between workers and live high-voltage equipment and conductors.

The agency also fined Coast Outdoor Advertising of Ladysmith $7,844 after one of its workers was severely burned and fell 8.5 metres, after a metal rod he was using came into contact with a live overhead power line.

In addition to those fines, Arbutus Environmental Services was fined $13,109 for not properly training a driver.

WorkSafeBC intends for its administrative penalties for health and safety violations to motivate as many employers as possible to comply with the Workers Compensation Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. They consider such fines when an employer commits a violation resulting in high risk of serious injury, serious illness, or death, is caught with several violations, fails to comply with an order within a reasonable amount of time, or demonstrates reckless disregard for regulations.

WorkSafeBC handed down a lot of penalties for safety violations in 2010, but among the largest fines were those handed down to Marine Harvest Canada, Western Forest Products and Diveco Marine Ltd, a Powell River diving company.

The final 2010 WorkSafeBC report, released last week, shows that Diveco was fined $100,000 after one of its divers was fatally injured while diving to recover dead fish from a Marine Harvest fish farm pen at Lochalsh Bay on September 12, 2007. As he ascended rapidly to the surface from a depth of 31.5 m (103 ft.), he experienced an air embolism, lost consciousness and drowned. According to a WorkSafeBC investigation, the company did not have adequate safety procedures for diving operations, and it failed to provide its workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety.

Another fine of $75,000 was assessed against Marine Harvest Canada of Campbell River, in connection with the same incident. The same WorkSafeBC investigation concluded that, as the prime contractor of a multiple-employer workplace, the company failed to coordinate the health and safety activities of all employers, workers, and others at the workplace, and it failed to establish and maintain a system to ensure compliance with the Workers Compensation Act and Occupational Health and Safety regulations.

Meanwhile, Western Forest Products Inc. was fined $75,000 following the death of a logger near Gold River on February 12, 2008. In that incident, two company tree fallers were cutting down trees within two tree-lengths of one another near the Galiano Forest Road. One faller cut down a tree that ended up striking and killing the other faller. A WorkSafeBC investigation into that accident concluded that the company failed to ensure that its fallers worked the required minimum two tree-length distance from each other, and that it failed to provide its workers with adequate supervision and instruction.

While last year WorkSafeBC imposed 256 penalties totaling more than $3 million against employers for violations of Occupational Health and Safety Regulations and the Workers Compensation Act, the agency notes that they only penalize those employers who are unmotivated by other means to keep their workplaces healthy and safe. A penalty is generally not imposed if an employer is found to have taken all reasonable steps to prevent violations that can lead to serious injury or death.

WorkSafeBC is an independent provincial statutory agency that serves about 2.3 million workers and more than 200,000 employers. Their enforcement arm includes officers who investigate serious workplace health and safety incidents, as well as occupational safety and hygiene officers who conduct inspections, respond to reported incidents and provide consultation and education to help achieve compliance.

WorkSafeBC has issued their enforcement report for 2010, and there were a lot of problems.

For the year, WorkSafeBC imposed 256 penalties totaling $3,163,898 against 232 different employers for violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation and the Workers Compensation Act. The amounts of individual penalties ranged from $1,000 on the low end to $145,046.98 on the high end. A total of 12 such incidents involved a fatality.

The high end penalty of $145,046.98 was imposed against Penfolds Roofing for an incident in which two of its workers were working on a roof between 4.5 m and 6 m above grade without using fall protection. The penalty was assessed in part because it was a repeat violation of the fall protection requirements as well as a violation of the requirement to provide workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their safety.

While companies from 58 industry classifications received penalties in 2010, those employers in five construction-related classifications accounted for 65% of the penalties imposed. Those classifications were:
• Steep Slope Roofing – 34.7%
• House or Other Wood Frame General Contracting, Construction or Renovation Work – 11.3%
• Framing or Residential Forming – 10.9%
• Low Slope Roofing – 4.68% (12)
• Industrial, Commercial, Institutional or Highrise Residential General Contracting or Construction – 3.9%

WorkSafeBC has stepped up enforcement in recent years, as it increased the number of compliance and safety officers by 33%, from 185 in 2004 to 247 in 2010, so expect those numbers to rise in the future, unless companies work harder to make their workplaces safer.

If you’d like to see the 2010 penalty list or the Top 10 penalties , click on the links.

WorkSafeBC handed down a lot of penalties for safety violations in 2010, but among the largest fines were those handed down to Marine Harvest Canada, Western Forest Products and Diveco Marine Ltd, a Powell River diving company.

The final 2010 WorkSafeBC report, released last week, shows that Diveco was fined $100,000 after one of its divers was fatally injured while diving to recover dead fish from a Marine Harvest fish farm pen at Lochalsh Bay on September 12, 2007. As he ascended rapidly to the surface from a depth of 31.5 m (103 ft.), he experienced an air embolism, lost consciousness and drowned. According to a WorkSafeBC investigation, the company did not have adequate safety procedures for diving operations, and it failed to provide its workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety.

Another fine of $75,000 was assessed against Marine Harvest Canada of Campbell River, in connection with the same incident. The same WorkSafeBC investigation concluded that, as the prime contractor of a multiple-employer workplace, the company failed to coordinate the health and safety activities of all employers, workers, and others at the workplace, and it failed to establish and maintain a system to ensure compliance with the Workers Compensation Act and Occupational Health and Safety regulations.

Meanwhile, Western Forest Products Inc. was fined $75,000 following the death of a logger near Gold River on February 12, 2008. In that incident, two company tree fallers were cutting down trees within two tree-lengths of one another near the Galiano Forest Road. One faller cut down a tree that ended up striking and killing the other faller. A WorkSafeBC investigation into that accident concluded that the company failed to ensure that its fallers worked the required minimum two tree-length distance from each other, and that it failed to provide its workers with adequate supervision and instruction.

While last year WorkSafeBC imposed 256 penalties totaling more than $3 million against employers for violations of Occupational Health and Safety Regulations and the Workers Compensation Act, the agency notes that they only penalize those employers who are unmotivated by other means to keep their workplaces healthy and safe. A penalty is generally not imposed if an employer is found to have taken all reasonable steps to prevent violations that can lead to serious injury or death.

WorkSafeBC is an independent provincial statutory agency that serves about 2.3 million workers and more than 200,000 employers. Their enforcement arm includes officers who investigate serious workplace health and safety incidents, as well as occupational safety and hygiene officers who conduct inspections, respond to reported incidents and provide consultation and education to help achieve compliance.

WorkSafeBC has issued their enforcement report for 2010, and there were a lot of problems.

For the year, WorkSafeBC imposed 256 penalties totaling $3,163,898 against 232 different employers for violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation and the Workers Compensation Act. The amounts of individual penalties ranged from $1,000 on the low end to $145,046.98 on the high end. A total of 12 such incidents involved a fatality.

The high end penalty of $145,046.98 was imposed against Penfolds Roofing for an incident in which two of its workers were working on a roof between 4.5 m and 6 m above grade without using fall protection. The penalty was assessed in part because it was a repeat violation of the fall protection requirements as well as a violation of the requirement to provide workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their safety.

While companies from 58 industry classifications received penalties in 2010, those employers in five construction-related classifications accounted for 65% of the penalties imposed. Those classifications were:

• Steep Slope Roofing  – 34.7%
• House or Other Wood Frame General Contracting, Construction or Renovation Work – 11.3%
• Framing or Residential Forming – 10.9%
• Low Slope Roofing – 4.68% (12)
• Industrial, Commercial, Institutional or Highrise Residential General Contracting or Construction – 3.9%

WorkSafeBC has stepped up enforcement in recent years, as it increased the number of compliance and safety officers by 33%, from 185 in 2004 to 247 in 2010, so expect those numbers to rise in the future, unless companies work harder to make their workplaces safer.

If you’d like to see the 2010 penalty list or the Top 10 penalties , click on the links.

British Columbia Provincial Court Judge Terese Alexander has handed the United Steelworkers Union a victory in its fight to see that Weyerhaeuser faces criminal charges in the death of a B.C. sawmill worker more than six years ago, when she ruled that the union presented enough evidence to proceed.

The worker at the Weyerhaeuser sawmill in New Westminster, Lyle Hewer, died on November 17, 2004 when he walked into the bottom of a hopper that fed wood waste into a grinding machine, called a hog. The wood waste that had been wedged above him came loose and rained down on him, killing him.

A report by WorkSafeBC investigators noted that Weyerhaeuser management knew that unclogging the machine was very dangerous, since a worker had previously been injured doing it, but they did nothing about about the situation, out of concerns for costs. In fact, entering the machine from underneath was still common practice at the time of the accident, even though it violated safety regulations.

In 2007, WorkSafeBC levied a $297,000 fine against Weyerhaeuser for the accident, saying safety risks were ignored at the mill. At the time, the fine was the highest the workers compensation agency had ever issued.

Police also investigated the incident at the time, and recommended criminal charges against the company. The Crown concluded, however, that although it would be in the public interest to prosecute, it was unlikely that a prosecution would proceed. Because of this, the union launched its own private investigation, which led them to conclude that there was enough evidence to charge Weyerhaeuser with criminal negligence in Hewer’s death. When they present the evidence to the judge, she agreed.

The judge’s ruling means Weyerhaeuser will be issued a summons to appear in court, and the Crown will be forced to either decide to proceed with a charge or have the case dropped.