A Burnaby construction company is appealing a $168,000 WorkSafeBC fine for an incident that saw a tower crane come into contact with a high-voltage power line at a Coquitlam worksite earlier this year.
WorkSafe was called to 720 Robinson St. in Coquitlam on April 15 for a report the remote control on the side of a tower crane owned and operated by Burnaby’s Femo Construction Ltd. had been left unattended and a gust of wind had pushed the crane's jib into the power lines, according to inspection reports obtained by the Burnaby NOW.
"The OptiCrane limiter failed to engage, and the chains came into contact with high voltage lines, knocking off power to the nearby surrounding area," stated an April 15 report.
No one was injured, according to the reports, and the crane was taken out of use "immediately" until it could be re-certified as safe by a professional engineer.
But WorkSafe said the incident could have resulted in serious injury or death.
On the day of the incident, an inspector requested copies of Femo's lockout procedures for the crane's remote control and the company's crane collision response plan.
Two weeks later, Femo provided the lockout procedures but not the collision response plan, according to the report, and the inspector suggested even the lockout procedures hadn't been prepared until after the incident.
"By viewing the properties for the document, I could tell the document was created on April 28, 2024 and was last modified on April 28, 2024," stated the report.
The inspector concluded Femo had not had the required "work arrangement and procedures" in place to work close to high-voltage electrical equipment at the Coquitlam worksite.
"The employer has a responsibility to provide workers with and instruct them in safe electrical work practices if the intended work may lead to an encroachment on the general limits of approach to energized high voltage equipment and conductors," stated a May 7 report.
WorkSafeBC ultimately determined the crane's zone-limiting device, designed to help it avoid contact with power lines, was not functioning, the crane's remote control had been left unattended, and there were no training records available for the crane operator.
Femo, which is headquartered at 8555 Greenall Ave. in Burnaby and specializes in concrete form work and pumping, was fined $167,890.28 for what WorkSafe described as a "repeated and high-risk violation" of the province's Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Regulation.
Femo is appealing the penalty, according to WorkSafe.
BC Hydro confirmed power was knocked out at about 2:20 p.m. on April 15 because of a crane contacting power lines, affecting 2,400 customers.
Power was restored to all but 200 by 9 p.m. once repair work to the lines was complete, according to an emailed statement.
OptiCrane Inc., a Maple Ridge company that specializes in crane safety technology, reached out to the NOW after this story was published and provided a report from one of its technicians that found the crane's OptiCrane limiter was working properly the day after the incident.
"None of the scenarios we recreated caused any failure of our system to occur," stated the report.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on X/Twitter @CorNaylor
Email [email protected]
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