A fast-moving shard struck the worker in the foot, severing some of his toes
A Green Line subcontractor’s toes were severed last month after the LRT project’s first workplace safety incident, said project CEO Darshpreet Bhatti.
Bhatti outlined what led to the worker’s injury during a progress update to the Green Line board on Thursday. He said the incident involved two subcontractors performing separate tasks at the 78th Avenue S.E. construction site on June 12.
“It’s obviously a very unfortunate position for that individual because now they have something they have to live with for the rest of their life,” he told reporters after the meeting. “So that’s something we can’t take lightly. We need to make sure that we fully understand what happened and how we can make sure something like that doesn’t occur at any other site.”
While he couldn’t speak definitely of the incident, Bhatti said it appears one of the subcontractors was working inside a precast concrete culvert and another was operating a nearby excavator. According to Bhatti, the latter worker came across an abandoned below-ground pipe, and attempted to remove it by using the bucket of his excavator.
The typical procedure when coming across abandoned pipes would be to excavate around the pipe and cut it into pieces before moving it out of the way, Bhatti said.
“We suspect — we don’t have the full findings of the report yet — that the individual operating the excavator may have tried to use the bucket of the excavator to pull that pipe out, rather than excavating around it,” he noted.
This resulted in the pipe breaking into pieces, at least one of which became a fast-moving projectile, Bhatti said. The shard flew toward the other individual 30 feet away, striking him in the foot.
Even though the worker was wearing steel-toed boots, Bhatti said the projectile missed the protected part of the boot, and struck his foot in a way that it still did enough damage to slice off some of his toes.
After the incident, Bhatti said work was immediately halted, an ambulance was called and the injured worker was taken to hospital. Despite the efforts of medical professionals, the worker did lose some of his toes.
This was the first time a worker has been injured since work on the Green Line began, according to Bhatti, who said tens of safety inspections are conducted at the project’s various construction sites each month.
“We’ve been very fortunate to date because of the efforts our team and partners have been making,” he said. “Accidents can happen and unfortunately this one did.
“To lose any part of your body is not something I would take as immaterial. This is huge for us, especially given the focus our board put on the project from a safety perspective.”
OHS investigating
A statement from Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) confirmed an investigation into a workplace injury on June 12 is underway and corroborated Bhatti’s account of the incident.
“It is tragic whenever a worker is hurt on the job,” OHS stated. “The Alberta government’s goal is to have every worker return home safely after each and every workday.”
The injured worker is now in recovery, according to OHS. As it is an active investigation, no further details will be provided, the organization said.
Because it was a subcontractor who was injured, Bhatti said the worker’s employer is responsible for managing any legal or insurance-related aspects of the incident.
“Our focus is making sure that individual who was involved is taken care of from a health-care perspective,” he said. “The other individual who was involved in the incident itself, the appropriate recourse was taken by the subcontractor as well as the contractor to address it.”