“Providing guidance in the meantime is sort of, let’s call it an interim step, to try to prevent similar incidents from happening again.” — Josh Towsley, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115
WorkSafeBC has taken another small step to shore up the safety of tower cranes by issuing an instructional bulletin on proper methods for slinging materials to be lifted over construction sites.
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The occupation is known as rigging, which requires specific skills and where poor practices have contributed to numerous workplace accidents over the past year including in October in Vancouver when a load of steel broke its sling sending heavy beams crashing down onto Hastings Street at the site of a 14-storey building under construction.
“It’s not regulation, it’s essentially WorkSafe sending out what is best practice and what is their expected practice,” said Josh Towsley, assistant business manager for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115.
“The expectation I have is that everybody that’s in and around (cranes), everybody that’s working as a rigger, would take the time to read and understand this and evaluate their own processes to see if they comply,” Towsley added.
WorkSafe spokesperson Alexandra Skinner, in an emailed response to Postmedia questions, said bulletins raise awareness about hazards along with provide “clear guidance on mitigating risks.”
“Bulletins help employers understand safety concerns, regulatory requirements and best practices in a way that is easy to share with workers, whether in safety meetings, tool box talks or formal training sessions,” Skinner said.
Towsley’s union is still waiting for the province to enact bigger changes that it has been lobbying for — new licensing requirements for tower crane operation and establishing crane operator and riggers as official trades.
“Providing guidance in the meantime is sort of, let’s call it an interim step, to try to prevent similar incidents from happening again,” Towsley said.
A construction worker, 41-year-old Yuridia Flores, was killed in a crane accident in February, 2024, when a wooden form fell from a height of more than 30 metres and struck her at the Oakridge Park redevelopment site.
The site was hit with a stop-work order during WorkSafe’s investigation of the fatality. CBC News has reported that WorkSafe had obtained search warrants as part of investigating a third accident on the site.
Leading up to the fatality in 2024, the disassembly of a crane in Burnaby that went awry leaving a section dangling over Lougheed Highway and the collapse of a tower crane’s boom on a construction site on King George Boulevard in Surrey were among high-profile incidents that sparked action.
Skinner said WorkSafe devised a “risk-reduction strategy aimed at crane and rigging safety,” in response to “several crane-related incidents.”
Skinner said cranes “typically operate safely,” but the risks associated with them increased with more cranes operating on “increasingly complex, multi-employer work sites.”
The strategy WorkSafeBC embarked on in 2024 included meeting with larger prime contractors, which hold overall responsibility for work site health and safety, and it continues to those with an interest in crane safety, including crane operators, employers, contractors and the B.C. Association for Crane Safety, Skinner said.
In October, WorkSafeBC amended its regulations to set specific requirements for filing “notice of project” documents two weeks in advance of setting up, repositioning, raising or dismantling a tower crane, and requiring that the work be done under the direction of a qualified supervisor.
Staff at the B.C. Crane Safety, in a statement attributed only to the crane administrator, said new WorkSafeBC regulations “are contributing positively” to safety, such as the notice period, and mandatory use of anti-collision and zone-protection devices on sites.
The B.C. Crane Safety statement added that its staff has seen an increase in the use of qualified supervisors and subject-matter experts on multi-crane sites for disciplines such as rigging.
“As demand for skilled workers increases, we are seeing an increase in training capacity and support for trade apprenticeship programs which also contribute to overall safety in the workplace,” the statement said.
Towsley added that his union’s own training school is waiting in the wings for the next step of trades training.
“Our training school has the equipment and curriculum built to deliver that training,” Towsley said. “We’ve also developed the rigging component for the industry as well.”