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