Just months after a flagger was fatally injured by a concrete truck at a Burnaby construction site, WorkSafeBC went on to stop work at the same site three times in one month because of unsafe traffic control practices.
‘Ultimately responsible’
Square Nine Developments Inc. was the primary contractor at the Alto on Capitol Hill lowrise condo project at 5523 Hastings St. on Aug. 11, 2021 when a flagger by the site was run over by a concrete mixer truck.
The woman had been directing traffic on the street where the truck was unloading into a pump truck, according to a WorkSafe report.
“When the unloading was complete, the mixer truck was driven ahead to leave the site,” states the report. “The (traffic control person) who was in the path of the mixer truck was run over and sustained fatal injuries.”
After an investigation, WorkSafe concluded the flagger had been in an unsafe position, too close to the work area.
“A safe work location was not established because the approved traffic control plan for the site was not being followed and the procedures the workers were using were inadequate,” stated the report.
Among the contributing factors, WorkSafe listed Square Nine’s failure to give the flaggers working that day an adequate site orientation or a review of the approved site-specific traffic control plan.
WorkSafe said the developer also failed to coordinate the activities of the flaggers and the concrete supplier’s workers.
“There should have been an established procedure for the (traffic control person) to direct the movement of the mixer trucks,” stated the report. “Also, the prime contractor was ultimately responsible to ensure that there was an effective overall traffic control system on site.”
Unsafe practices
But traffic control practices at the site appeared not to have improved seven months later, on March 10, 2022, when a WorkSafe inspector found a Square Nine worker, who was later determined not to have completed a board-approved traffic control training program, flagging around another cement truck at the same site without the proper personal protective equipment and with no temporary traffic control devices in place.
The traffic management plan the inspector was shown indicated a section of the road should have been closed to traffic, a flagger should have been at each end of the closure, and temporary signs and barriers should have been set up.
Instead there was just one worker directing traffic on a street “open to the flow of traffic,” according to one report.
The developer had also failed to complete a mandatory traffic control risk assessment.
The inspector shut down work at the site, saying it wouldn’t resume until a risk assessment had been completed.
When she returned later the same day, however, she saw another worker controlling traffic without the required equipment and PPE or training.
The inspector also found out Square Nine didn’t have a qualified traffic control supervisor assigned to the site, the report said.
A second stop-work order was issued.
Work was allowed to resume after Square Nine had a risk assessment completed and addressed other issues flagged by the inspector.
Within days, however, on March 18, 2022, she returned to the site and saw another Square Nine worker flagging around a concrete pump truck on a street that hadn’t been closed to traffic contrary to the traffic control plan, according to another report.
“At this time I determined that my previous orders issued at this site did not motivate the employer to ensure the coordination of health and safety activities at this workplace and to have a system or process in place to ensure compliance and I issued a ‘stop work’ order for all work activities,” states the report.
WorkSafeBC penalties
Square Nine was eventually fined $2,500 for violations related to the flagger’s death and another $2,500 for the violations that followed, which WorkSafe characterized as “high-risk.”
The NOW has reached out to Square Nine owner and founder Manish Sharma and is waiting to hear back.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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