Workers examine a hole next to a building at 755 Berri into which a worker fell, in Montreal Aug. 20, 2015. Phil Carpenter / Montreal Gazette
Jesse Feith, Montreal Gazette
Published on: August 20, 2015
Workers gather underneath the Bonaventure Expressway at Mill Street where a worker fell Aug. 20, 2015. Phil Carpenter / Montreal Gazette
Two construction workers were injured on Thursday in separate workplace accidents only a few kilometres apart in Montreal.
Early Thursday morning, a worker in his 30s was seriously injured after falling about nine metres from a forklift at the Bonaventure Expressway construction site.
According to CSD Construction union representative Marco Patenaude, the man was hospitalized and treated for broken ribs and internal bleeding, among other injuries.
He apparently did not suffer head injuries, however, and his life was not in danger. He was quickly joined by his father at the hospital and said to be in stable condition come early afternoon.
The accident happened around 4:50 a.m. near Riverside St. on the east side of the Peel Basin.
Patenaude said workers were at the end of their night shift when a box was raised with a forklift toward the overpass so workers could store their tools before wrapping up for the night.
For reasons that aren’t yet clear, Patenaude said, the man climbed into the box that had been raised, tipping it forward and sending him crashing to the ground below.
Workers tended to him on the site before he was quickly brought to the hospital. At least one other worker, who witnessed the fall, was brought to the hospital to be treated for possible shock.
In a separate incident around 8 a.m., a 55-year-old worker fell about two metres from scaffolding that was set up inside a five-metre-deep hole on a construction site behind a building on Berri St. The man had heard a sound coming from above, and lost his footing when he looked up to see what it was.
He suffered back and neck injuries, but never lost consciousness after falling.
The CSST is looking into both accidents.
The safety board says about 700 falls from height occur on construction sites across Quebec each year. Last year, five construction workers died in Quebec from falling from sites while on the job.
In the Montreal area alone, 59 workers were injured from falls in 2014.
“It’s the principal risk that we deal with each year,” said CSST spokesperson Maxime Boucher. “Unfortunately it happens almost every single day.”
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Two workers injured in separate construction-site accidents
A construction worker is in serious condition after falling about nine metres off a forklift at the Bonaventure Expressway construction site.