Amacon Construction Ltd. has been fined more than $15,500 for violations at a Burnaby highrise construction site earlier this year.
WorksafeBC inspected the site at 4482 Dawson St. after a painter fell nearly three storeys from a forklift in April.
An Amacon worker had used a telehandler forklift with a large garbage bin attached to raise the painter, who was working for Jerzy Quality Painting Ltd., to a third floor balcony, according to a WorkSafe report.
When the forklift operator started to retract the boom and move the forklift, the painter fell about 25 feet (7.6 m) and came within two feet (0.6 m) of hitting the ground before a harness stopped his fall.
The forklift operator told a WorkSafe inspector that it had been difficult to hear the painter over the noise of the forklift and he also couldn’t see the painter to know when it was safe to retract the telescoping boom of the forklift.
“This employer did not ensure that there was effective means of communication between the telehandler forklift operator and the worker on the work platform that was supported by the forklift,” states the report.
The work was also taking place near energized overhead high voltage lines, according to WorkSafe.
During the inspection, the inspector also saw a worker without a respirator cutting masonry brick and releasing a cloud of dust potentially containing crystalline silica, a known cancer-causing agent.
The company was issued stop work orders until the problems were fixed.
