Vancouver, June 8: A major British Columbia transportation provider has been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars following an investigation into the death of an employee.
BC Ferries has been ordered to pay $674,445.92 by WorkSafeBC, the provincial workers’ compensation board.
The penalty follows an investigation into the 2020 death.
According to WorkSafeBC, a BC Ferries employee had been working on a ferry vessel that was docked at a maintenance facility in Richmond.
The worker leaned onto and over a panel of fabric webbing and was attempting to retrieve an item floating in the water,” WorkSafeBC said of what happened.
“The fabric webbing panel broke away, and the worker fell into the water and drowned.”
The agency’s investigation determined the worker hadn’t been wearing a personal floatation device at the time, and that the panels were “insufficient at controlling the hazard of falling into the water.”
WorkSafeBC said there were no safe work procedures developed when it came to retrieving objects that fell into the water, as was the case in this incident, and that BC Ferries “failed to ensure the health and safety of all workers at its worksite.”
In addition, it said, BC Ferries failed to provide workers with the training, instruction and supervision necessary to ensure they stayed safe while at work.
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