WorkSafeBC has cited two companies for safety violations that led to the death of a construction worker on a job site in Burnaby last year.
On April 9, 2015, Justin Jeffries fell to his death while he was cleaning an underground air shaft at a highrise construction site at Station Square in Metrotown.
The NOW obtained a WorkSafeBC report on the death through a freedom of information request, which sheds some light on what went wrong that day.
The 29-year-old North Shore resident was sent to clean out a horizontal air shaft, about 10 feet underground, that was unlit and roughly 168 feet long. He was partnered with another unnamed man, who left to grab something and asked a third worker to keep an eye on Jeffries.
Jeffries was gone a minute or two when the third man said he heard a thud, and when he called out to Jeffries, there was no response.
That man then went down the shaft looking for Jeffries but had to use his cell phone light because it was so dark. He, too, almost fell down the 30-foot shaft but stopped just two feet short of the drop off, which was not sealed off.
Jeffries walked right off the ledge into a 30-foot drop off, landing on a concrete surface in one of the lower level parking lots. Two people administered first aid on Jeffries while waiting for paramedics, but they couldn’t revive him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
No one involved was aware of the drop off at the end of the air vent, and the workers were simply told to clean out the space, according to the report.
WorkSafeBC cited Station Square Construction for failing to provide adequate safeguards and adequate lighting. Quolus Construction Services, Jeffries direct employer, failed to provide adequate lighting, didn’t ensure the hazards in the vent were minimized or eliminated, and didn’t provide a fall protection system. The NOW asked WorkSafeBC if either company would be fined, and we’re currently waiting for their response.
