The deaths of two Vancouver Island loggers within weeks of each other in March sent a chill through the forest industry, and has sparked discussion about how to ensure such tragedies don’t happen again.
“It’s pretty sombre right now, especially in the [tree] falling community, which is a tight community,” said Rob Moonen, chief executive of the B.C. Forest Safety Council, the industry’s health and safety association responsible for establishing best practices.
“When a faller passes as a result of a work-related death, there is a ripple effect not only within the industry but the community where this work takes place.”
Faller Chris Bohn, 54, was killed at work on Tree Farm Licence 19 near his home in Gold River on March 1. Then on March 15, a 41-year-old faller from Comox, whose name has not been released, was killed when he was struck by the top of a tree at a logging site on Mount Connolly, northeast of Broughton Island.
Details of both incidents are scarce, as the RCMP, WorkSafe B.C. and the Coroners Service continue to investigate.
Moonen said the two deaths in quick succession spurred a series of discussions with fallers, companies, contractors and the union on how to prevent similar tragedies.
Brian Butler, president of Steelworkers Local 1937, said safety discussions have been held with falling departments of member companies, and the union is awaiting WorkSafe’s report into the accident that killed Bohn. “We hope to compare it to our joint union/company investigation that was held to see if something can be done to prevent this tragic outcome.”
Butler said the union will also be speaking with the Forest Safety Council to see if other measures can be taken to prevent further tragedies.
Moonen pointed out forestry has come a long way in improving job safety over the last 20 years, but it clearly still has plenty to do.
“The industry has come together to try and get every body home at the end of every work day,” he said. “But when you see two events like that, which occur in such a short time period, it brings into question the internal focus and what more we need to do to achieve our goal.”
The industry has made progress since 2005, when there were 34 deaths, Moonen said.
WorkSafe B.C. said since 2010, the industry has seen an average of eight deaths each year. There were five in 2018 and eight in 2019.
Moonen said manual fallers face the highest risk and have the highest injury rate.
“They make a lot of complex decisions through the course of a day in a very unforgiving environment that is constantly changing due to weather and falling activities taking place,” he said, adding the incidents spurred the council and the industry to remind fallers they are working in extremely hazardous conditions.
The council issued a fatality alert on March 15, urging tree-falling operations to review safety guidelines, including assessing hazards on the site, stopping work and getting advice and help if there’s any doubt about the safety of an operation, clearing danger trees and ensuring a safe escape route.
“We always go back to the basics,” said Moonen. “We will take the opportunity, when we get more information about the incidents, to see if we are missing anything — is there any more we can do to avoid these tragedies.”
Moonen said the 2015 death of Jeremy Tanaka, a 38-year-old faller who died on the North Island when he was hit by a tree that was inadvertently uprooted by a nearby piece of logging equipment, spurred the industry to change its practices.
Tanaka’s death resulted in a set of guidelines on improved supervision of worksites and phasing for logging operations, with the goal of reducing congestion on sites.
