Foreign worker killed on connector

By Phil Melnychuk - Maple Ridge News - May 14, 2008

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A dump truck backed over a construction worker at the Abernethy connector site in Maple Ridge on Friday.

Phil Melnychuk/THE NEWS

A 41-year-old worker hit by a loaded dump truck Friday on the Golden Ears Bridge construction work site died a few hours later in hospital.

The accident happened at about 1:45 p.m. at 128th Avenue and 210th Street. The location is the site of the overpass that is being built to allow cattle to pass below the road that leads to the new Golden Ears Bridge.

Ian McLeod, spokesman for Golden Crossing Constructors Joint Venture, which is building the bridge for TransLink, said the man was a field engineer from Germany.

“My understanding is he was struck by the vehicle,” McLeod said.

Police and emergency crews responded to the accident in the farmer’s field after the truck had backed over the man.

Maple Ridge firefighters used their heavy lift air bags to raise the truck by about 45 centimetres, but because of the position of the man, they had to use a fork lift to tip up the truck to free him.

The air bags have the ability to lift a vehicle that weighs 70 tonnes.

After about an hour, he was freed from the truck and evacuated by B.C. Ambulance Service helicopter to Royal Columbian Hospital.

The engineer worked for Bilfinger Berger Canada as a subcontractor for the joint venture. Bilfinger and CH2M Hill are the companies that make up the joint venture.

McLeod said WorkSafe BC will be investigating and the company will be doing its own investigation.

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Foreign worker killed on connector

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