Work-related fatalities database online

CCOHS database includes accident details and recommendations from the inquest

A new database of workplace-related fatalities is now available on the Web.

The Fatality Reports database is a free service provided by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS). The database provides insight into the circumstances and causes surrounding occupational fatalities. Included in this collection are reports from coroner’s inquests and inquiries emanating from many jurisdictions across Canada.

Currently, the database lists Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan.

The searchable database allows people to find out how work-related fatalities may have been prevented in order to avoid future reoccurrences. For example, the database contains hundreds of Farm Safety Association of Ontario fatality reports. Many of the reports originate from the construction, mining and logging industries.

The reports include the accident details, the industrial sector affected, the occupation of the deceased and recommendations from the inquest.

The site can be accessed at http://ccinfoweb.ccohs.ca/fatality/search.html.

Here is a sample entry pulled at random from the database:

Record Number: 2421
CIS Descriptors: INJURIES
FALLS FROM HEIGHTS
UNSAFE ACTS
GRAIN ELEVATORS
AGRICULTURE
ASSEMBLY AND DISASSEMBLY

FATALITY REPORT

REPORT CHARACTERISTICS:

DONOR: Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
JURISDICTION: Manitoba
REPORT TITLE: Report by Provincial Judge on Inquest
INDIVIDUAL PRESIDING: B.P. McDonald, Provincial Judge
PLACE OF INQUIRY: Carman
DATE OF INQUIRY : 1991-01-07

INFORMATION ABOUT DECEASED:

NAME: Barry Duncan Kippen
OCCUPATION: Unavailable
INDUSTRIAL SECTOR: Farming industry

ACCIDENT INFORMATION:

DATE OF FATALITY : 1990-04-23
PLACE OF FATALITY: R.M. of Dufferin
BRIEF CAUSE OF DEATH: Multiple trauma.
BRIEF MANNER OF DEATH: Fell 105 feet.

ACCIDENT DESCRIPTION:

The deceased, with 12 years experience in such work, was dismantling a grain elevator and storage system for moving to another site. Just prior to attempting to attach the auger device, called a "Green Leg", to a crane in order to have it lifted and lowered to the ground, in order to free a piece of equipment to allow it to be lowered, cut one of four support cables rather than a handrail. The cut rendered the "Green Leg" unstable. The instability was known to the deceased; he continued with the procedure. The "Leg" toppled and with the deceased at the top of the "Leg", 105 feet from the ground, either due to a change of wind pressure or the movement of the deceased, he was propelled onto a transformer on a hydro pole and then fell to the ground. Death was instantaneous from multiple trauma including fractures to spine, dorsal spine, massive exsanguination into abdominal cavity, fractured pelvis.

COMMENTS ON RECOMMENDATIONS BY PROVINCIAL JUDGE:

The deceased assumed an unnecessary risk; the assumption proved fatal.

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