Example of Notice of Incidents E-mail

Prepared by: E-Business Unit, WorkSafeBC (Workers' Compensation Board of BC)

This update contains details from selected Notice of Incident (NI) reports received by WorkSafeBC. It is intended to alert employers and workers to the types of incidents occurring in their industry.

This information may help you to prevent similar incidents in your workplace.

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THE NI INFORMATION IS PRELIMINARY AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

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PRIMARY RESOURCES
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Injury Type : Close call
Core Activity : Fish packing
Location : Northern BC
ID Number : 2005139050083
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

Before dawn, a commercial fishing vessel was heading back to the fishing grounds after delivering a load to port. The crew member at the wheel fell asleep and the vessel struck a rock wall, splitting open the bow and taking on water. The crew members donned immersion suits, abandoned to the life raft, and were picked up by another fishing vessel.

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Injury Type : Fatal
Core Activity : Log hauling
Location : Lower Mainland
ID Number : 2005152480162
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

A logging truck was backing up a sloped logging spur to the loading area when it went off the roadway and rolled about 70 metres down an embankment. The driver was ejected from truck cab and was found 20 metres farther down.

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Injury Type : Penetrating injury to eye
Core Activity : Repairing equipment (harvesting and processing bettle-infested timber)
Location : Northern BC
ID Number : 2005112850208
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

A worker repairing equipment was hammering a steel pin out from a hydraulic cylinder when a piece of steel dislodged and struck and penetrated his eye.

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Injury Type: Fatal
Core Activity : Cable or hi-lead logging
Location : Central Interior
ID Number : 2005114050346
Date of Accident : 2005-Sep

While a chaser/buckerman was processing (bucking the broken end of) a 20-foot log in a cable yarding log landing area, he was run over and crushed by a tracked log loader.

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Injury Type : Close call
Core Activity : Log booming
Location : Vancouver Island
ID Number : 2005108320118
Date of Accident : 2005-Sep

As a 20-ton crane attempted to swing a barge ramp into position, a front jack stablizer failed, causing significant damage to the crane.

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Injury Type : Fractured leg, which became infected and had to be amputated
Core Activity : Greenhouse
Location : Central Interior
ID Number : 2005107970549
Date of Accident : 2005-May

A worker was on the top walkway beside the top row of a mushroom bed. At the end of the row, he removed two planks between the bed and the wall to gain access to the end of the bed. The worker attempted to cross over to the other side by hanging on to the top bed frame and stepping along the lower bed frame. A 2x4 top bed frame dislodged and the worker fell approximately 6 feet to ground level.

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MANUFACTURING
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Injury Type : Fatal
Core Activity : Concrete product manufacture
Location : Lower Mainland
ID Number : 2005101150079
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

As a worker oiled a hydraulic piston on a concrete moulding machine, the revolving table pinned and crushed his arm against a metal support pillar. The worker later died of medical complications. [Revised.]

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Injury Type : Crush injuries to arm and shoulder, fractured hip, possible concussion
Core Activity : Soil gardening material packaging
Location : Lower Mainland
ID Number : 2005117670537
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

A worker was pulled into a bag-flattening machine by an unguarded conveyor belt.

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Injury Type : Partial amputation of one finger; laceration injuries to hand and forearm
Core Activity : Tire recycling
Location : Lower Mainland
ID Number : 2005134580329
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

Two workers were manually repositioning a tire in preparation to make the second cut through a tire wall using a hydraulic off-road tire shear. The raised shear head came down unexpectedly, partially pinning one worker's hands between the shear blade and the frame of the machine.

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Injury Type : Head laceration
Core Activity : Food product manufacture
Location : BC
ID Number : 2005146170088
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

A worker's head was struck as he was lifted out of a process vessel during a rescue practice for confined space entry.

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Injury Type : Fractured skull, brain swelling, broken collarbone
Core Activity : Oil or gas production
Location : Northern BC
ID Number : 2005154930115
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

A worker was struck by a kelly hose that came loose and fell after the rigging below the hook failed.

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Injury Type : Pneumothorax; fractured sternum, ribs, vertebra, nose
Core Activity : Loading hog fuel on barge
Location : BC
ID Number : 2005095610288
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

While loading hog fuel onto a barge, a worker fell into the pit of hog fuel, dropped onto the moving conveyor belt, travelled to the top, and fell approximately 75 feet from the chute onto the partly loaded barge.

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Injury Type : Undetermined injuries to one eye
Core Activity : Managing a natural gas hydrate in a pipeline
Location : Northern BC
ID Number : 2005154930110
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

Two workers were managing a natural gas hydrate in a pipeline when the line ruptured. One worker was blasted in the face with high-pressure natural gas.

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Injury Type : Facial lacerations, swelling, and suspected fractures
Core Activity : Pole wood preserving plant
Location : Central Interior
ID Number : 2005156160084
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

Young worker (ages 15-24)
Less than 1.5 years' experience at this task

A young worker was struck in the face by a block of wood that shot out from under the tire of a wheel loader travelling over debris. The block weighed almost 10 pounds and travelled 40 feet before striking the worker.

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Injury Type : Severe lacerations and abrasions to hand and arm
Core Activity : Sawmill
Location : Central Interior
ID Number : 2005155700080
Date of Accident : 2005-Jun

A worker's arm was caught in the outfeed rolls of a planer when he attempted to remove an obstruction. The equipment had not been locked out.

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CONSTRUCTION
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Injury Type : Bruising and abrasions
Core Activity : Wood frame construction
Location : Vancouver Island
ID Number : 2005138190234
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

Young worker (ages 15-24)
Less than 6 months' experience at this task

A framer (young worker) fell approximately 14 feet from a roof with a 10/12 slope and struck a wood-frame scaffold before landing on the ground.

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Injury Type : Close call
Core Activity : Road repairs
Location : Central Interior
ID Number : 2005015490307
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

A backhoe was excavating a soft spot in the street so repairs could be done. It hit and damaged a service nipple on a 3-inch gas main.

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Injury Type : Close call
Core Activity : Residential construction
Location : Central Interior
ID Number : 2005143950166
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

A flatbed truck with an articulating boom crane delivered materials to a construction site. After the delivery, the truck drove away with the boom still extended above it. The boom contacted an overhead telephone line that was attached to a power transmission pole, pulling down the high-voltage power lines. There was no live wire contact with the truck or boom and the circuits locked out when the power lines came down onto the road.

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Injury Type : Nausea and headaches (2 workers)
Core Activity : Travelling to work location
Location : Northern BC
ID Number : 2005154930111
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

Two workers were exposed to hydrogen sulfide gas while travelling to work. They had passed a sour natural gas pipeline leak at a site where a pipeline had been ruptured the day before.

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Injury Type : Whiplash, bruising, lacerations
Core Activity : Land clearing, excavation, or site surface preparation
Location : Central Interior
ID Number : 2005110750398
Date of Accident : 2005-Sep

An end-dump gravel trailer was dumping a load of gravel on flat and level ground. The trailer's tail gate remained closed so the gravel stayed in the trailer until it was raised enough to become unstable and fall onto its side, crushing the driver's side of the cab.

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Injury Type : Broken vertebrae
Core Activity : Residential construction
Location : Central Interior
ID Number : 2005110750414
Date of Accident : 2005-Sep

A worker stepped back to visually inspect his work on a gable. As he stepped onto an unsecured piece of plywood (cut from the gable), he fell backwards and landed on the floor 8 feet below.

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Injury Type : Broken cheek bone, facial laceration
Core Activity : Building piles
Location : Lower Mainland
ID Number : 2005117930170
Date of Accident : 2005-Aug

A come-along hand winch was used to line up a pile for a weld. After the pile was lined up, a worker went to release the winch. The winch was under tension, and as the worker released it, it struck the worker in the face.

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Injury Type : Close call
Core Activity : Pile driving
Location : Lower Mainland
ID Number : 2005115130908
Date of Accident : 2005-Aug

The operator of a four-wheel-drive, telescopic boom forklift was placing a pipe on uneven ground. The forklift rolled slowly onto its side.

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TRANSPORTATION AND WAREHOUSING
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Injury Type : Contusions and abrasions to torso, wrist
Core Activity : Importing/Warehousing/Distribution
Location : Lower Mainland
ID Number : 2005147280269
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

A worker stepped from an elevated order picker onto racking with particle board shelving (11/16 inch thick). The shelving failed, and the worker fell through the racking and landed 7.5 feet below on a concrete floor.

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Injury Type : Fatal
Core Activity : Railway operation
Location : BC
ID Number : 2005117670528
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

A rail crew was switching rail cars in the yard. After several attempts to contact the conductor, the brakeman found him, deceased, on the tracks under a rail car being shunted.

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Injury Type : Fatal
Core Activity : Trucking
Location : Lower Mainland
ID Number : 2005107330383
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

A multi-vehicle accident occurred on a highway following a diesel fuel spill. When a logging truck driver attempted to stop before striking the vehicles ahead, the logging truck jack-knifed. After leaving the cab of the logging truck, the driver was struck by a dump truck.

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PUBLIC SECTOR
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Injury Type : Amputation of four fingers
Core Activity : Grounds maintenance
Location : BC
ID Number : 2005064400087
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

A worker's hand was injured by the rotating blades of a tractor-mounted leaf mulcher when the worker attempted to clear a plugged discharge hose.

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Injury Type : Bruised chest and abdominal area
Core Activity : Vehicle maintenance yard/Engineering operations
Location : BC
ID Number : 2005117930166
Date of Accident : 2005-Aug

A worker and a backhoe operator were using the bucket of a backhoe to straighten a bent metal access gate. As the bucket was being re-aligned, it knocked over an empty transformer box. The operator instantly swung the bucket away from the transformer and the worker instantly moved toward the falling transformer. The worker and the bucket collided.

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SERVICE SECTOR
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Injury Type : Close call
Core Activity : Landscaping
Location : Lower Mainland
ID Number : 2005105910200
Date of Accident : 2005-Oct

An excavator contacted a high-voltage underground conductor while preparing a site for the installation of a retaining wall.

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Injury Type : Multiple fractures of one foot
Core Activity : Computer repair business
Location : Lower Mainland
ID Number : 2005115520163
Date of Accident : 2005-Aug

A worker was driving a lift truck onto the bed of a flatbed truck. When he realized the lift truck was going to fall off the flatbed, he tried to jump clear but one of his feet was caught in the lift truck.

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