Hants County man dies as result of Metro industrial accident

Hants County man dies as result of Metro industrial accident

By Christy Marsters

The Hants Journal/NovaNewsNow.com



Tilt-Pro Contracting ceased all activities for a day out of respect for an employee who lost his life as a result of a worksite accident. The Hants County man died soon after the tragedy, which took place in Burnside Monday morning Sept.8.

The 34-year-old, Windsor-are man was working at a construction site on Wilkinson Avenue when a concrete wall was bumped and knocked over by a cement truck. The wall fell and pinned the man, and he suffered severe injuries to his lower extremities.

“Halifax Regional Police responded along with fire and ambulance crews to the construction site (at 11:30 a.m.),” Cst. Jeff Carr of the Halifax Regional Police said. “Upon being freed, he was transported to hospital where he later succumbed.

“His name will not be released at this time, pending speaking to his family regarding their wishes,” Carr said at the time. “The Labour Department will lead an investigation into the incident.”

Julie Trites of the Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia said the death of this construction worker raises an issue of workplace safety and the importance of injury prevention. “Far too many workers are getting hurt, or killed on the job in Nova Scotia.”

Last year, 12 people died on the job, and though it’s a decrease from the 22 fatalities in 2006, it’s still far too many, Trites said. “There’s a huge potential to reduce the human suffering.”

Tilt-Pro Contracting spokesperson Tracey Tulloch said the man had worked with the company for five years, and it’s going to take a while to adapt to the fact of his death.

“We’re in a state of shock,” she said. “Our safety standards are known to be very high.”

The Labour Department is investigating and the company wants to learn of any practices that could help prevent something like this from ever happening again, Tulloch added. “Our most sincere condolences go out to his family.”

Factbox: Construction Industry Safety in Nova Scotia (According to the WCB)

• In 2007, there was one workplace fatality in the construction industry.

• There were 2,912 workplace injuries

• Of those, 762 were time-loss injuries, meaning they were serious enough that the worker had to lose time from work.