A coroner’s inquest into the death of a young construction worker has concluded.
The jury made nine recommendations Wednesday evening after several hours of deliberation. Among the nine recommendations, five of them deal with better training for young workers using elevated work platforms.
The jury also recommends stronger penalties for altering or disarming safety mechanisms on equipment. Argueta's machine had an alarm which warns the driver about being on an unsafe slope, but that alarm had spray foam in it and the wires had been disconnected. The jury also wants the construction industry to hold tool box meetings at the start of each work day, to discuss workplace objectives and address safety concerns.
Gustavo Argueta, 24, died in June of 2011 when a boom lift he was working on near the Mackenzie River bridge tipped over.
Testimony over the three-day inquest showed that Argueta had received inadequate training before getting on the Genie S65 boom lift. Evidence also showed that an alarm system designed to warn an operator when the lift was on a slope of more than 4.5 degrees had been disabled.
Argueta had taken the lift up a slope around 14 degrees when it tipped.
Coroner David Legge told the jury Wednesday afternoon that the evidence showed Argueta was probably working in an unsafe environment that lacked foresight and communication.
Argueta was working alone under the bridge patching holes while another crew was on top of the bridge. There was a also a worker culture that put pressure on Argueta to perform quickly.
"Let's stop this business of skyjack fatalities dead in its tracks," he said.
Earlier Wednesday the inquest heard from Argueta's brother, Walter, who was working on top of the bridge at the time of the accident. Argueta, a student on a partial soccer scholarship at Simon Fraser University, hadn't been on the job long when the accident happened.
Not a day goes by that he doesn't think about his brother and the day he died.
"The noise of a dump truck's tailgate closing makes me jump," he said.
Walter Argueta said the crew was using a concrete mixture called ductal, which dries much more quickly than regular concrete. That meant they had to work quickly.
"The longer you wait the harder it gets," he said.
It was Gustavo's job to patch holes underneath the bridge while a crew worked on top continuing to pour the concrete.
The slope where he tipped was between two access roads.
Walter said his brother might have tried to use the slope as a shortcut to get to the next section of the bridge.
"He was trying to catch up to us," Walter said.
It was the only time Gustavo Argueta had ever used a lift. The inquest heard that he had received training in the form of a video and a written test. Walter said the training is inadequate.
"It's pretty much impossible to fail that test," he said.
Walter described his brother as one of the safest people he'd ever worked with up until that point.
Ministry of Labour inspector Ronald Moro said everyone he interviewed for the investigation described Argueta as a serious and dedicated worker. The main reason for the accident was a lack of training.
"That is the reason why you're here," he told the jury.
In his submissions Crown Attorney Dan Mitchell said that while the discussion of whether Argueta lacked supervision had come up through the inquest, making recommendations about it might be hard to legislate.
"Supervising employees is an art not a science," he said.
While a lot had been discussed about the alarm and the fact that it was disabled, Mitchell wanted it made clear that no one thought Argueta had done it. But because the boom lift has a waterproof compartment with enough room for an inspection checklist, something that's currently not required to complete, perhaps the jury could include that in their recommendations.
