Power Shop Mechanic Fatally Injured During Industrial Truck Repair [Vancouver, BC – 21 July 2018]
![Power Shop Mechanic Fatally Injured During Industrial Truck Repair [Vancouver, BC – 21 July 2018]](https://blueoceana.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/images.jpeg)
Reports coming to Blueoceana Company this evening indicate that a power shop mechanic was killed at the Fraser Surrey Docks Marine Terminal (photo above) earlier today, when the (large) engine compartment cover of a high capacity industrial truck he was working on fell on him. Similar reports would have us understand that a fellow worker sustained a broken arm while in the process of extracting the more severely injured mechanic.
The identities of either worker have not yet been disclosed.
ILWU Canada Local Union 502 issued the following news release:
International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada
NEWS RELEASE Saturday July 21, 2018
International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada mourns loss of a member in fatal workplace accident Saturday at Fraser Surrey Docks
VANCOUVER – The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 502 and the national union are mourning the sad loss of a member, a mechanic who died Saturday in a workplace accident at the Fraser Surrey Docks.
ILWU Canada President Rob Ashton said the identity of the man has not yet been released publicly.
“On behalf of the rank and File of the ILWU Canada, I would like express our deepest sympathies and condolences to the family and friends of our comrade,” said Ashton.
Ashton said the mechanic had also been a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115.
“This is a very sad day – a worker went to his job this morning and didn’t go home to his family. We can and we must do more to protect all workers from deaths and injuries due to workplace accidents,” Ashton said.
Link to Media Report: Mechanic dies in lift truck accident at Fraser Surrey Docks (072118)
Update (22 July 12:30 PM): Unconfirmed information coming to us, provides that the industrial truck involved in yesterday’s accident was a Hyster Model 550. The machine’s profile:
Access to the sizable engine compartment is arrived at through two gull wing cowls (at the Hyster side logo), and by tilting the hinged cab laterally. Of course, tilting the cab fully provides both greater accessibility and stability. To achieve that end, however, the mast (and its supporting pistons) must be tilted forward as well.
In this particular case, those unconfirmed reports indicate that the mechanical work at hand was to replace an inoperable starter. Thus, with no means to start the engine the power required to tilt the mast fully was not available. Consequently, the cab was titled only to the greatest extent possible under those conditions. That limitation is theorized by the writer to have caused a circumstance wherein the tilted cab became somewhat unstable, and ultimately came down with fatal force and effect.
We await further information, as well as confirmation of the foregoing.
Top views of the Hyster Model 550’s power plant accessibility features (note the lateral tilt of the machine’s cab):
