Date of incident: March 2021
Notice of incident number: 2021194090004
Employers: Pipeline construction company

Incident summary
At a pipeline construction worksite, the operator of a side boom crawler (a sort of mobile crane on tracks) was attempting to turn the side boom around. As he was backing up the side boom, its right-hand track began running over the back of a parked pickup truck. Two workers ran toward the side boom to try to get the operator to stop turning. As one of the workers approached the side boom, he slipped and fell in front of its tracks as the side boom was pulling forward away from the parked truck, and the side boom ran over him. The worker sustained serious injuries.

Investigation conclusions

Cause

• Mobile equipment hazard controls not implemented. The side boom operator was turning the side boom around at a location where a pickup truck was parked on the road. His visibility in the side boom’s cab was restricted and he could not see the truck. Two workers ran into the 6 m hazard zone around the side boom without first establishing contact with the operator, and the operator did not see the worker who slipped and fell. The incident could have been prevented if controls that the employer had trained its workers on and fully informed them of had been put in place. These include exiting equipment to physically check for hazards, not parking unnecessary vehicles in a work zone, using trained spotters for mobile equipment, not breaching the 6 m hazard zone around the side boom, and not approaching the side boom without first receiving clearance to do so from its operator. The employer failed to ensure that these controls were implemented at the worksite.

Contributing factors

• Inadequate supervision. On the day of the incident, the employer failed to ensure it provided adequate supervision to its workers. Workers were not provided with adequate safe work information frequently enough to ensure their health and safety: the employer failed to ensure that the relevant job safety analyses were reviewed periodically as the project continued. The hazard posed by the presence of the truck within the work area was not recognized, and a spotter was not used in the zone where the incident occurred. Had a spotter been used, the pickup truck might have been removed from the work area, and the initial event of the truck being struck by the side boom would have been avoided. Thus, the subsequent chain of events might have been broken and the incident prevented.

Request the full report