21.01.2008

Crane tips on rapid transit job

The 22 year old operator of a nine ton industrial pick and carry crane working on the Canada Line rapid-transit project in Vancouver died yesterday after his crane tipped over.

The crane was lifting a bucket of materials from the deck of a bridge spanning the Fraser River, down to the platform of an underbridge acces platform, when the crane lost its balance and toppled over.
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The crane was working alongside an underbridge access unit

The crane was left hanging over the side of the bridge with the operator trapped in the crushed cab.

All crane operators on the project are said to be fully trained and certified, the particular operator is said to have worked on the project for between four and five months.

The dead man, who has now been named as Andrew Slobodian is said to be an employee of InTransitBC, a joint-venture company set up to build the bridge on the Canada Line, a $1.9-billion expansion of Vancouver's SkyTrain elevated rapid-transit system. This was apparently the first fatality on the job, no one else was injured in the incident.

Vancouver police and fire investigators, along with the coroner and officials of the provincial WorkSafe BC programme were on the scene last night.