6 B.C. LUMBER WORKE R Special W. C. B. Department Coordinates Mercy Trips An hour ...a minute... even a second may mean the difference between life or death Time is a big factor when there is the life of a critically injured workman at stake. Take the case of a workman| ting the wheels in motion. Frank Double Check Steps severely injured at Terrace. His] checks his timetables to find out] . It is ‘not enough only to make employer rushes him to the near-| if the particular area is serviced| the arrangements but it is also est hospital for emergency treat-| by regular commercial flights| necessary to double check every ment. But the attending Doctor|and at what time those flights| step until the injured workman feels that the man must have] are leaving, In seconds he is on| is safely in hospital. Whenever specialized treatment in Vancou-|the phone -to the airline giving} Frank cannot be reached, his as- ver in order to give him the best instructions for the mercy flight. sistants, Jack Wormald and Bill chance of full recovery. If there is no regular flight sche-| Chisholm take over transporta- ae MERCY PLANES such as the one pictured above have saved hundreds of workers’ lives through the prompt- ness with which they are dispatched to the accident scene by Frank Green, Supervisor of the Workmen’s Com- pensation Board's Emergency Transportation Department. Rush Call duled, arrangements are made] tion arrangements. A rush phone call is placed to| for a special charter flight to] After business hours and on Frank Green, Supervisor of the] pick up the injured workman.| weekends interior hospitals and Workmen’s Compensation Board’s| Contacts are also made to ensure| doctors place their calls for em- Emergency Transportation De-| that the injured workman is es-|ergency transportation directly partment in Vancouver. It is his] corted by a nurse or doctor. Am-| to Frank Green’s home in Van- duty to coordinate emergency| bulance and hospital authorities] couver which means that Frank transportation of injured work-|in Vancouver are briefed so that|is on call twenty-four hours a men in the Province. the workman will get speedy at-| day. He doesn’t waste any time get-| tention when he arrives. During: the last eight years ACCIDENT FATALS DOWN During the first three quar- ters of 1957 industrial injuries in B.C. reported to the Work- men’s Compensation Board totalled 69,800 as compared with 71,822 for the same period last year. EXPERIENCE: 8 years.” AGE: 28 years. » The Shovel Operator was cleaning up shot rock at the toe of a rock face approximately 20 feet high with a 4:1 slope. A rock slab broke off the slope unexpectedly and crashed into the side of the shovel, crushing the cab and pinning the operator inside. At the time of the accident, the shovel was sitting parallel to the face with the operator’s cab adjacent to the rock face. There is some uncertainty as to the order of events just prior to the accident, but it would appear that the deceased, noting that a cable had come off the boom had swung his machine around so he could step down to the track and then to the ground. Operators should attempt at all times to have either the engine or the shovel stick between them and the rock face! Frank Green has handled well over 1000 mercy trips, most of them by. air, Out of this number only one man died during transit. Thousands Spent The Workmen’s Compensation Board has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on mercy trips by plane, helicopter, train and ambulance. But this expense is secondary when a life may hang in the balance, x Frank Green has nothing but praise for the Doctors in interior areas and the transportation companies, particularly the air- line pilots who at times risk their you arx only onx p: ha nxxdxd, rxmxmbxr my typxav lives to save the life of an in- jured workman, Not once in eight years that Frank has arranged these mercy trips has he ever had to reprimand any transporta- tion company for incompetency. This is a remarkable record and many timxs that it proves that“When a life is in dan- ger, people will go to unbeliev- thxrx arx forty-six $ able lengths to help an injured * pereny but just onx kxy not: " R.C.A.F. Used Ss H i . omxtimxs it tomx that Sometimes when flying condi- sonata tions are so bad that all com- somxwhat likx " mercial airlines are grounded, yes typxwe Frank must call on the R.C.A.F. arx workin to carry out a merey mission. The i Propeeiyg |{Yo R.C.A.F. will brave \ seemingly “Wrxll, I am onl a impossible conditions, when they : ll are called upon to do so. Many a program.” But it doxs mak an injured workman owes his life l ¥ to their skill and daring. safxty program, to ctivs The people of B.C, can be ¥ Program| - i proud of men like their airline pation of xvxry xmployxx, So't pilots, ambulance drivers and others whose dedication to duty has helped save hundreds of lives, Possibly at this vi mom- ent an injured workman is being rushed to a Vancouver hospital by these men, sxlf, “I am a kxy p in gu f Although injury reports up to ‘ September 80 of this year were down 3%, compensation pay- ments arising out of these in- juries were up 2% or $300,000 over last year. Total compensa- tion payments so far this year have amounted to nearly 16 mil- lion dollars, Fatals Down The brightest news is a 22% reduction in the number of fatal injuries during the first nine months of this year. In 1956, 281 fatal accidents had been reported compared to only 181 for the same period this year. Accidents requiring lay-off from work of three or more days totalled 20,000. This was down about 3% from the corresponding period last year. WCB Chairman, J. E. Eades, Q.C., said that the decline in in- dustrial accidents was encourag- ing. He congratulated both labor and management for cooperating so well with the WCB’s Accident Prevention Department. The ‘WCB recently increased its safe- ty inspection force to 23 men in a move designed to broaden its inspections of industrial opera- Tam nxxdxd vxry x \ Reprinted in the ie, Compensation Courtesy—Safety Letter, iam 5] tions,