August 12, 2009

PATRICK MCCONNELL

A bundle of sheet metal fell from a Calgary site killing a young girl. Two investigations are underway, as are inspections of other highrise worksites in Alberta.

Occupational health and safety

Young girl’s death in Calgary sparks inspection blitz

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

Provincial inspectors in Alberta have launched a wide-scale investigation into safety at high-rise construction sites after a toddler was killed by falling building materials in Calgary.

“Basically, what they decided to do was inspect all the high-rise buildings in Calgary and Edmonton,” said Chris Chodan, spokesperson for Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OHS).

“We think there will be 20 buildings in Calgary and 17 or 18 in Edmonton. There will be regular inspections that look at compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act.”

An intense wind storm in Calgary on Aug. 1 caused construction material to fall from the Le Germain building.

“A six metre piece of metal roofing material had become dislodged from the building under construction and fell approximately 30 to 40 metres striking a group of people on the sidewalk across the street on 9th Avenue,” said a City of Calgary press release.

“A female toddler was fatally injured by the piece of falling material and others in the group sustained various non-life threatening injuries.”

The top eight storeys of the building are under construction and fire crews needed to secure additional building material on the upper floors in the high winds before the scene could be deemed safe for emergency responders.

Michelle Krsek, 3, was pronounced dead at the scene and her father, Miroslav, and seven-year-old brother, Eric, were badly injured.

“There were two separate things that fell from the building,” said Chodan.

“A bundle of five sheets of metal roofing, which caused the fatality, and an individual piece of roofing fell as well. The bundle of five sheets of steel weighed about 500 lbs and fell from 22 stories.”

There was a stop work order on the Le Germain site, but this was changed to include only the 22nd floor, which is the roof.

The initial inspection of the construction site, done after Krsek was killed, raised enough questions for provincial safety officials to launch a much broader investigation.

“The investigation into the other buildings will take a few days,” said Chodan.

“We do this frequently when we focus our attention on a particular area of concern. There was a fatality, so this was an area of concern.”

The death and public safety in general falls under the jurisdiction of city authorities and police.

“OHS couldn’t lay charges for the fatality and the injury because they didn’t happen to workers,” explained Chodan.

“But, OHS can only lay charges when there is the possibility that workers could have been hurt.”

Chodan said when OHS officers find variations from the OHS Act, they forward the file to the regulatory prosecutions unit in the Alberta Ministry of Justice.

If crown prosecutors agree, charges are laid.

The crown prosecutor assesses whether or not it is in the public interest to secure a conviction, as well as the likelihood of securing a conviction.

The OHS investigators will take a few months to go through all the information about safety at the Le Germain site and OHS has two years from the date of the incident to finish the investigation.

Potentially, there could be up to $500,000 in fines and up to six months in jail, if a charge is laid and there is a conviction.

The city’s investigation is looking at possible infractions of the Alberta Safety Codes Act, which could cost the building’s owner, Groupe Germain, a maximum fine of $15,000 for each charge.

City police are looking at whether negligence contributed to the death.

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