A hauling company has been fined $2,500 for “high-risk” violations after cinder block pillars meant to support a mobile home failed, sending it crashing to the ground and fatally trapping a worker in Qualicum Beach, B.C.
The penalty, imposed on Knightly Mobile Haulers Ltd. on July 4, 2023, but released last week, came after three workers with the company attempted to place a mobile home into position on a residential lot in the Vancouver Island community.
On Feb. 9, 2022, at around 8 a.m., the company foreman assessed the site and then met up with his truck driver and labourer where the home was stored. Aside from some loose siding, everything looked good, according to a WorkSafeBC inspection report.
The workers put the mobile home on an eight-wheel dolly and towed it to the residential lot for installation. On-site, they winched the 20-metre, 10,000-kilogram home up to four metres off the ground and set to work building cinder block piers to support the structure.
Just before 2 p.m., the truck driver was straightening out plastic sheeting under the jacked-up home when it unexpectedly shifted. The jacks and some of the cinder block piers broke and toppled over. The home fell to the ground, trapping the truck driver.
The foreman and labourer tried to jack up the home, but it wasn't until firefighters arrived and used air bags that the driver was freed. The worker did not survive.
Workers never should have gone under suspended home
In a summary of the penalty, WorkSafeBC said the hauling company's high-risk violations included a failure to ensure the partially assembled structures had enough support to “safely withstand any loads likely to be imposed on them.”
“The firm failed to ensure that workers did not stand or pass beneath a suspended load,” added WorkSafeBC.
An inspection report of the incident found the workers used an “undocumented procedure” to install the mobile home. When inspectors spoke to another company providing similar services, they said nobody is allowed near the mobile home while it’s being lowered and raised in the air.
Further investigation found the home had shifted laterally up to 1.2 metres and that the company had not braced the structure to prevent such movement when the temporary supports failed.
“Knightway failed to ensure the use of adequate lifting procedures,” concluded investigators.
“Knightway did not conduct an adequate hazard identification and risk assessment for the work of installing a mobile home.”
Penalty does not 'reflect tragic loss of life'
The inspection report said the company had been operating for about nine months before the incident.
Glacier Media reached out to the company for comment, but management had not responded by the time of publication.
In an email, WorkSafeBC advisor and spokesperson Ashley Gregerson said the $2,500 administrative penalty handed to the company “does not, and cannot, reflect the tragic loss of life that occurred in this workplace incident.”
“The primary purpose of an administrative penalty is to motivate the employer receiving the penalty — and other employers — to comply with occupational health and safety legislation and regulation, and to keep their workplaces safe,” she said.
Gregerson added that the amount of the penalty is based on the the size of the employer’s payroll, the nature of the violation and an employer's history of violations.
