THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

SAFETY CHAIRMAN KILLED

IWA

By GORDON HURLBERT
Local 1-424 Safety Director
Loeal 1-424 in Prince

George recently had its first

fatal accident since December,
1964,

Brother Gordon Smith, a
carpenter employed at Weld-
wood of Canada, Quesnel Di-
vision, was electrocuted when
a boom on a crane he was
working around came in con-
tact with a 12,000 volt over-
_ head transmission.

Bro. Smith was a member

of our Union for eight years.

He was very active in safety
work and was Chairman of
the Plywood Safety Commit-
tee.

At approximately 2 p.m. on
March llth the crane from
the pond area was brought up
to a new well and pumphouse
that was being built by an in-
dependent contractor. The
crane operator had about five
years experience and was a
well qualified operator. Un-
fortunately working around
the pond there is very little,
if any, overhead hazard.

Upon arriving at the well
site the crane operator was
told to park his crane directly
under the high tension lines
so that his boom would swing
over the well opening. The
crane operator, working with
the contractor’s crew, pro-
ceeded to make two pulls of
material out of the well with
no trouble at all. During this
time the crane operator was
given no warning or instruc-
tion on the overhead power
lines,

After the crane finished the
work for the contractors, the
deceased and his helper were
preparing to have a float,
which they had previously
built, lowered into the well
opening. The crane operator
and the deceased had a dis-
cussion about lifting the float
straight up so as not to dam-
age it. Again there was no
mention of the overhead pow-
er lines. The operator then
lifted the boom on a signal
given by the deceased.

Meanwhile the deceased’s
helper was having trouble
pulling out the mainline from

CANADIAN

the crane. The deceased went
over to help pull the mainline
and had just grabbed the
mainline when the boom came
in contact with the power
line. The crane operator was
not sure what had happened
until he saw the sparks come
down from the boom.

This was a tragedy of er-
rors that could have been
avoided in so many ways.

There arises out of this ac-
cident some questions which
I think must be asked:

1. Does the Company put pro-
duction expediency ahead

of Safety?

2. Was the complete disregard
for the W.C.B. prevention
regulations company pol-
icy?

ON JOB IN QUESNEL

3. Is the lack of adequate on-
the-job safety instruction
going to continue?

4. Will more people be injur-
ed through inadequate su-
pervision?

5. Will a sounder, more effic-
ient, safety program be now
instituted?

6. If these things are not done
will another fatality occur?

In closing, I would like ta
add the Coroner’s Jury re-
commendation, which is a re-
minder that should not have
to be given: :

“IN FUTURE, EXTREME
CARE AND CAUTION BE
TAKEN WHEN MACHIN-
ERY IS WORKING NEAR
HIGH VOLTAGE LINES.”

This year we better start gatherin’ nuts and quit

relyin’ on their cook house .. .

do go on strike!

just in case they

Make saving

a habit

with a

IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE
MORE THAN 1260 BRANCHES TO SERVE YOU

Grab yourself
a LUCKY!

A bold

breed of beer...
a man’s beer...
slow-brewed the
Canadian way...
aged for
premium flavour

and man-sized Fe
EBD Fox
Seen)
cy
LTAVO

taste!
Order early for the festive season ...
order LUCKY LAGER.

This advertisement is not published or dis
Control Board or by the Government of British Columbia age