major safety incidents in canada the last 150 years

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CANADIAN WORKPLACE SAFETY

MONUMENTSTO REMIND US OF THE SACRIFICE

CANADA 150 1867 - 2017


INTRODUCTION I have outlined the workplace safety monuments in Canada. I continue to

try and see all monuments and museums as I travel across the country. I start with a proposed monument in my neighbourhood of Welland,

Ontario. Should you wish to donate. I am sure I have missed some , so please feel free to add to the list. What lessons have we learned? Please comment. Research my be required. I have included Westray lessons Learned , from an IAPA & BC conference

presentation I conducted. It’s will be 25 years this may. Imagine you were walking through a museum of Safety History in Canada,

150 years. I begin with the National Day of Mourning.

24 / 7

Wilson Bateman

www.7safetyhabits.com [email protected]

http://www.7safetyhabits.com/

mailto:[email protected]


The National Day of Mourning, held annually in Canada on April 28, is dedicated to remembering those who have lost their lives, or suffered injury or illness on the job or due to a work-related tragedy.


APRIL 28

• Statistics and beyond• The most recent statistics from the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada (AWCBC)

tell us that in 2015, 852 workplace deaths were recorded in Canada. Among those dead were four young workers aged fifteen to nineteen years; and another eleven workers aged twenty to twenty-four years.

• Add to these fatalities the 232,629 claims accepted for lost time due to a work-related injury or disease, including 8,155 from young workers aged fifteen to nineteen, and the fact that these statistics only include what is reported and accepted by the compensation boards, and it is safe to say that the total number of workers impacted is even higher.

• What these numbers don't show is just how many people are directly affected by these workplace tragedies. Each worker death impacts the loved ones, families, friends and coworkers they leave behind, changing all of their lives forever.


NATIONAL DAY OF MORNING

• Observance• The National Day of Mourning is not only a day to remember and honour those lives lost or injured due to a workplace tragedy, but

also a day to renew the commitment to improve health and safety in the workplace and prevent further injuries, illnesses and deaths.

• On April 28th the Canadian flag will fly at half-mast on Parliament Hill and on all federal government buildings. Employers and workers will observe Day of Mourning in a variety of ways. Some light candles, lay wreaths, wear commemorative pins, ribbons or black armbands, and pause for a moment of silence at 11:00 a.m.

• History• In 1991, eight years after the day of remembrance was launched by the Canadian Labour Congress, the Parliament of Canada

passed the Workers Mourning Day Act making April 28 an official Day of Mourning. Today the Day of Mourning has since spread to about 100 countries around the world and is recognized as Workers’ Memorial Day, and as International Workers' Memorial Day by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

• It is the hope of CCOHS that the annual observance of this day will help strengthen the resolve to establish safe and healthy conditions in the workplace, and prevent further injuries and deaths. As much as this is a day to remember the dead, it is also a call to protect the living and make work a place to thrive. https://www.ccohs.ca/events/mourning/


Saint John, NB, Canada


MONUMENTS

• For a complete list visit CCOHShttps://www.ccohs.ca/events/mourning/

https://www.ccohs.ca/events/mourning/


3 PARTS :

1. 1887 – 1930

2. 1956 – 1974

3. 1982 – Present

CANADA 150 1867 - 2017


PART 1 DATES : 1887 - 1930

• Welland Canal (proposed)• World’s most dangerous• 7 Survived 1887• The Iron Ring 1907• Ice Warning 1912• The Worst 1914• Empress 1914• Christmas Tree 1917• Merchant 1930

CANADA 150 1867 - 2017


WELLAND CANAL FALLEN WORKERS MEMORIAL• 137 men who died while building the Welland Ship Canal.• It is believed to be the largest loss of life on a federal government

infrastructure project in Canadian history.• A photo of damage caused by a fatal accident in 1928 at Lock 6 in

Thorold during the construction of the Fourth Welland Canal. Nine men died after a 500 ton steel lock gate fell to the lock floor after a locomotive-powered crane toppled into the lock cavern, knocking over the gate. Photo from the St. Catharines Museum, John Kennedy Collection.


124 DEATHS

Welland Canal deaths, by the numbers • 1914: Year construction began• 1932: Year canal opened• 124: Number of known deaths• 13: Number of known nationalities among

the dead

Official records show none of the 124 lost were easy deaths. Some were crushed, like those who died in the infamous gate collapse of 1928. Others were electrocuted or drowned. Others lingered for a time after suffering grievous wounds

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2016/07/11/canal-memorial-cost-rising-about-100000




FIRST MAJOR CANADIAN COAL MINING DISASTER• The first major Canadian coal mining disaster was at Westville, Pictou

County, Nova Scotia, on 13 May 1873 after a shot of explosive ignited methane at the coal face. The fire caused a gas explosion, which, fed by coal dust, ripped through the mine and set off further explosions, killing workers and firefighters attempting their rescue.

• Those untouched by the blast and fireballs were brought down by the carbon monoxide left in the fire’s wake. The mine was sealed to starve the fire of oxygen, and two years passed before the last of 60 bodies were recovered.

• http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/coal-mining-disasters/

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/westville/

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/coal-mining-disasters/

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/coal-mining-disasters/


WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS COLLIERY

• The Pictou County coal field was particularly dangerous because the thick, methane-oozing seams made them prone to spontaneous combustion and explosion. Of the coal field’s 676 known mining deaths, 246 were from explosions. Experts considered Stellarton’s Allan mine the world’s most dangerous colliery. In the explosion of 23 January 1918, 88 died, leaving barely a family in the community untouched by the disaster.


WHO PERISHED IN THE DRUMMOND COLLIERY EXPLOSION OF MAY 13 - 1873

OH WHAT A SUDDEN SHOCK THEY IN A MOMENT FELL NO TIME ALLOWED TO BID THEIR FRIENDS FAREWELL

WEEP NOT FOR THEM, NOR SORROW TAKE, BUT LOVE THEIR FAMILIES FOR THEIR SAKE

BE YE ALSO READY

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nspictou/minewest.htm

BE YE ALSO READY

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nspictou/minewest.htm


CAPE BRETON

• From 1866 to 1987, 1,321 fatalities were reported in Cape Breton mines, including 65 in an explosion at New Waterford (25 July 1917), and 16 in Sydney Mines (6 December 1938) when a cable broke, sending a riding rake plummeting. The last explosion (Glace Bay, 24 February 1979) took 12 lives.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cape-breton-island/

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/new-waterford/

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/glace-bay/


NANAIMO MINE

EXPLOSION1887


7 SURVIVED

Only seven miners survived and the mine burned for one full day.


NANAIMO MINE EXPLOSION ON MAY 3, 1887

• The Nanaimo mine explosion on May 3, 1887, in Nanaimo, British Columbia killed 150 miners. Only seven miners survived and the mine burned for one full day.

• The explosion started deep underground in the Number One Coal Mine, after explosives were laid improperly. Although many miners died instantly, others were trapped by the explosion.

• These men wrote farewell messages in the dust of their shovels. Nearly 150 children lost their fathers and 46 women became widows. commemorates the event.


PLAQUE

A plaque at the foot of Milton Street commemorates the event.


QUEBEC CITYBRIDGE COLLAPSE

1907


PERSONAL STORY

• High above the St. Lawrence River, on a hot August day in 1907, a worker named Beauvais was driving rivets into the great southern span of the Quebec Bridge. Near the end of a long day, he noticed that a rivet that he had driven no more than an hour before had snapped clean in two.

• Just as he called out to his foreman to report the disquieting news, the scream of twisting metal pierced the air. The giant cantilever dropped out from under them, crashing into the river with such force that people in the city of Quebec, 10 km away, believed that an earthquake had struck.

• http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec-bridge-disaster-feature/

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec-bridge-disaster-feature/

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec-bridge-disaster-feature/


75 WORKERS

• Of the 86 workers on the bridge that August 29, 1907, 75 died, many of them local Caughnawaga, famous for their high steel work.

• Some of the dead had been crushed by the twisted steel; others by the fall. Still others drowned before the rescue boats could reach them.


THEODORE COOPER

• The Quebec Bridge was to be one of the engineering wonders of the world. When completed it would be the largest structure of its kind and the longest bridge in the world, outstripping the famous Firth of Forth Bridge in Scotland.

• American engineer Theodore Cooper was chosen to design it. He was a proud even arrogant man who had numerous prestigious projects to his name, including the Second Avenue Bridge in New York.


SUBORDINATE

• Cooper chose the cantilever structure as the "best and cheapest plan" to span the broad St. Lawrence. That word "cheapest" would come back to haunt him. In order to cut the cost of building the piers farther out in the river, Cooper lengthened the bridge span from 490 metres to 550 metres. When Robert Douglas, a Canadian government engineer, reviewed Cooper's specifications, he criticized the very high stresses the longer span required. Cooper was outraged at the criticism by this nobody.

• "This puts me in the position of a subordinate," he raged, "which I cannot accept."


A PROBLEM • A young engineer by the name of Norman McLure was the first to see the

problem. On August 6 McLure reported to Cooper that the lower chords on the south arm were bent. Cooper wired back almost plaintively "How did that happen?" McLure reported two more bent chords on August 12 but Chief Engineer John Deans insisted that work continue.

• On August 27 McLure measured the bend again. The deflection had grown. He informed Cooper who wired the bridge company in Pennsylvania: "Place no more load on Quebec bridge until all facts considered." Cooper assumed that the work had stopped. Deans had read his wire but ignored it.


SECOND DISASTER

• It took two years to clear the debris from the river. The site became a pilgrimage for engineers come to consider the vast destructive forces of human error.

• The Canadian government took over the bridge project and rebuilt it with much heavier (and much uglier) cantilever arms. The ill-starred bridge suffered a second disaster on 11 September 1916 when a new centre span being hoisted into position fell into the river, killing 13 men.


INQUIRY

• The Royal Commission of Inquiry investigating the calamity excoriated John Deans for his poor judgment in allowing work to continue when it was obvious that the bridge was in danger.

• The brunt of the blame, however, was placed on the shoulders of Theodore Cooper, who had committed grave errors in design and his calculation of loads. There was criticism of the bridge company for putting profit above safety and for engineers who neglected their professional and moral duties.


RITUAL OF THE CALLING OF AN ENGINEER

• The ritual traces its origins to professor H. E. T. Haultain of the University of Toronto, who believed and persuaded other members of the Engineering Institute of Canada that there needed to be a ceremony and standard of ethics developed for graduating engineers.

• The need was patently obvious in the light of the Quebec Bridge disasters. The ritual was created in 1922 by Rudyard Kipling at the request of Haultain, representing seven past-presidents of the Engineering Institute of Canada.[2][3] The seven past-presidents were the original seven Wardens of the Corporation.


MONUMENT

QUEBEC BRIDGE DISASTER


Titanic 1912


TITANIC

• On April 10, 1912, the RMS Titanic left Southampton, England on her maiden voyage. After stops at Cherbourg, France and Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, she steamed for New York, USA carrying over 2,200 passengers and crew.

• Four days later, on Sunday, April 14 at 11:40 pm, Titanic struck a giant iceberg and by 2:20 am on April 15, the “unsinkable ship” was gone. In less than three hours, the pride of the White Star Line had become one of the greatest marine disasters in recorded history.


WHITE STAR LINE

• Within days of the sinking, the White Star Line dispatched the first of four Canadian vessels to search for bodies. The first two vessels to carry out this grim task were the Halifax-based Cable Ships Mackay-Bennett and Minia, which recovered 306 and 17 victims respectively. In all, 150 unclaimed victims were laid to rest in Halifax, forever linking the city to the vessel’s tragic tale.

• Today, the city of Halifax and the Province of Nova Scotia retain many reminders of the way in which the tragedy of the Titanic touched the lives of those who lived here. From the gravestones of victims, to memorial monuments; preserved fragments of the vessel, to original photographs and documents; stories passed down through generations, to new insights and discoveries; Nova Scotians have remained respectful keepers of the vessel’s memory.

• https://www.novascotia.ca/titanic/

https://www.novascotia.ca/titanic/

www.7safetyhabits.com HILLCREST MINE

DISASTER1914

WORST MINING

ACCIDENT IN CANADIAN HISTORY


WORST MINING DISASTER IN CANADIAN HISTORY• The most deadly disaster — and the worst mining accident in Canadian history

— is the story of the Hillcrest Mine, where a methane explosion ripped through the underground tunnels on the morning of June 19, 1914, killing 189 men.

• At the time, the Hillcrest Mine was considered the safest and best run mine in the Crowsnest Pass. In fact, safety precautions had kept the mine idle for the two days prior to the explosion; there had been an overproduction of coal, and regulations called for a shutdown so that a union committee could check the mine for methane gas pockets. - See more at: http://www.cim.org/en/Publications-and-Technical-Resources/Publications/CIM-Magazine/2011/february/mining-lore/The-Hillcrest-Mine-disaster.aspx#sthash.fo3Vp3SA.dpuf

http://www.cim.org/en/Publications-and-Technical-Resources/Publications/CIM-Magazine/2011/february/mining-lore/The-Hillcrest-Mine-disaster.aspx#sthash.fo3Vp3SA.dpuf




HILLCREST CEMETERY

• Of the 237 men and boys in the mine at that time, 189 lost their lives.

• Probably all would have been lost if the quick-thinking General Manager had not rushed to reverse the rotation of the huge ventilation fans, blowing fresh air into the shaft and displacing enough of the mixture of methane, CO2 and carbon monoxide gas to allow some of the miners to be rescued.

• Back in town there is an opportunity for a sobering visit to pay respects at the Hillctreat Cemetery where the explosion victims were laid to rest in a mass grave.

• A new monument has been constructed since the previous visit several years ago.


RMS EMPRESS OF IRELAND

• RMS Empress of Ireland was an ocean liner that sank in the Saint Lawrence River following a collision with the Norwegian collier SS Storstad in the early hours of 29 May 1914.

• Of the 1,477 people on board, 1,012 died. The number of deaths is the largest of any Canadian maritime accident in peacetime.


WORLD’S GREATEST TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM • Empress of Ireland was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering

at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland and was launched in 1906.. The liner, along with her sister ship Empress of Britain, was commissioned by Canadian Pacific Steamships (at that time part of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) conglomerate) for the North Atlantic route between Quebec and Liverpool in England.

• (The transcontinental CPR and its fleet of ocean liners constituted CPR's self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Transportation System".) Empress of Ireland had just begun her 96th voyage when she sank.


SS STORSTAD

• SS Storstad in Montreal after the collision. Note the damage to the bow

• Formal portrait of Captain Henry Kendall, the last captain of the RMS Empress of Ireland.


SITE HISTORIQUE MARITIME DE LA POINTE-AU-PÈRE

• The Site historique maritime de la Pointe-au-Père is a maritime museum located in Rimouski, Quebec, Canada, that displays 200 years of maritime history, and includes the only submarine open to the public in Canada, HMCS Onondaga (S73).


HALIFAX EXPLOSION

1917


HALIFAX EXPLOSION • The Halifax Explosion was a maritime disaster in Halifax, Nova Scotia,

Canada, on the morning of 6 December 1917. SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship laden with high explosives, collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo in the Narrows, a strait connecting the upper Halifax Harbour to Bedford Basin.

• A fire on board the French ship ignited her cargo, causing a large explosion that devastated the Richmond district of Halifax. Approximately 2,000 people were killed by blast, debris, fires and collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were injured.[1]

www.7safetyhabits.com SS Mont-Blanc


THE MONT-BLANC

• Captain Le Medec's decision for his crew to abandon the ship saved their lives. All from the Mont-Blanc survived, with the exception of one sailor who suffered serious injuries, he later died from his wounds. As for the ship, nothing of the ship remained; it was literally blown to bits.

• Fragments of the ship, large and small were thrown high into the air. Large pieces were catapulted for miles, one of the ship's gun barrels landed three and a half miles away at Albro Lake in Dartmouth. A 1140 pound piece of the anchor was found partially buried, two miles away in Armdale. Rivets and small fragments of red-hot steel fell into the harbour and onto the surrounding area crashing through buildings punching holes in ships, killing, and maiming people.

www.7safetyhabits.com SS Imo


SS IMO

• The Mont-Blanc exploded before the Imo could make headway to open water. The shockwave swept over the deck tearing away the smoke stack and the super-structure. Shrapnel perforated the ship's hull.

• Captain Haakon From was killed, as were five of the crew of the Imo. The body of Pilot William Hayes was found crouched under a boat on the bridge. The tsunami lifted the Imo and threw it against the Dartmouth shore.


CAPE BRETON

• A cloud of white smoke rose to over 3,600 metres (11,800 ft).

• The shock wave from the blast travelled through the earth at nearly 23 times the speed of sound and was felt as far away as Cape Breton (207 kilometres or 129 miles) and Prince Edward Island (180 kilometres or 110 miles).[


CHRISTMAS TREE

In 1918, Halifax sent a Christmas tree to the City of Boston in thanks and remembrance for the help that the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee provided immediately after the disaster.


MERCHANT MARINE1914 - 1930


WORLD WAR I & II

• An informal merchant navy appears in 1914 at the start of World War I and was renamed as Canadian Government Merchant Marine in 1918, but slowly disappeared by 1930[1]

• Within hours of Canada's declaration of war on September 10, 1939, the Canadian government passed laws to create the Canadian Merchant Navy setting out rules and controls to provide a workforce for wartime shipping. The World War II Merchant Navy greatly expanded a similar effort in World War I known as the Canadian Mercantile Marine.

• The Canadian Merchant Navy played a major role in the Battle of the Atlantic bolstering the allies merchant fleet due to high losses in the British Merchant Navy. Eventually thousands of Canadians served aboard hundreds of Canadian Merchant Navy ships, notably the "Park Ships", the Canadian equivalent of the American "Liberty Ships".


• "In memory of 2200 known Canadian Merchant Seamen and 91 Canadian vessels lost by enemy action and those who served in the cause of freedom

• World War I 1914–1918; World War II 1939–1945; Korean Conflict 1950–1953"


• Monuments to the Canadian Merchant Navy were erected in several Canadian cities.

• Halifax, NS

LESSONS LEARNED PART 1

1

Who

2

What

3

Where

4

Why

5

When

6

How



PART 2 DATES: 1956 -1974• Convent 1956• 2nd Narrows Bridge 1958• Springhill 1958• Fishermen 1959• Stop Drop 1968• Grenade 1974• HIGHWAY DISASTERS• Fire & Police

CANADA 150 1867 - 2017


CONVENT CRASH1956


CRASH• The Convent Crash, also known as the Orléans air disaster and Villa St.

Louis disaster, occurred on May 15, 1956 after a CF-100 fighter jet crashed into the Villa St. Louis in the community of Orléans, Ontario. 15 people were killed in the crash: 11 members of the Grey Nuns, two aviators, a civilian servant at the Villa and the chaplain, a retired naval padre. [1]


CF-100


CRASH

• At 10:37 p.m. May 15, 1956 two CF-100s were launched from their base at RCAF Station Uplands (located south of Ottawa) to identify an unknown aircraft heading towards Montréal. The plane was identified as a RCAF North Star flying from Resolute Bay to Dorval Airport. The two planes climbed to 33,000 feet to practice interception techniques and burn off excess fuel before returning to base.

• One of the aircraft returned to base, but the other remained airborne longer to burn off more excess fuel. However, something malfunctioned on the plane. One story is that the oxygen masks of the two crewmen malfunctioned and the men lost consciousness, though the cause has never been officially determined. The plane descended at a speed of nearly 680mph and crashed into the Villa St. Louis.


2ND NARROWSBRIDGE COLLAPSE

1958June 17, 1958


IRONWORKERS MEMORIAL BRIDGE

• The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing, also called the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and Second Narrows Bridge, is the second bridge constructed at the Second (east) Narrows of Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

• Originally named the Second Narrows Bridge, it connects Vancouver to the north shore of Burrard Inlet, which includes the District of North Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver, and West Vancouver. It was constructed adjacent to the older Second Narrows Bridge, which is now exclusively a rail bridge. The First Narrows Bridge, better known as Lions Gate Bridge, crosses Burrard Inlet about 8 kilometres west of the Second Narrows.


COLLAPSE

• On June 17, 1958, as a crane stretched from the north side of the new bridge to join the two chords of the unfinished arch, several spans collapsed.

• Seventy-nine workers plunged 30 metres (100 ft) into the water. Eighteen were killed either instantly or shortly thereafter, possibly drowned by their heavy tool belts.

• A diver searching for bodies drowned later, bringing the total fatalities for the collapse to 19.

• In a subsequent Royal Commission inquiry, the bridge collapse was attributed to miscalculation by bridge engineers. A temporary arm, holding the fifth anchor span, was deemed too light to bear the weight


SPRINGHILL MINE DISASTER

1891, 1956, and 1958


DISASTER

• Springhill mining disaster may refer to any of three Canadian mining disasters that occurred in 1891, 1956, and 1958 in different mines within the Springhill coalfield, near the town of Springhill in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia.

• The mines in the Springhill coalfield were established in the 19th century, and by the early 1880s were being worked by the Cumberland Coal & Railway Company Ltd. and the Springhill & Parrsboro Coal & Railway Company Ltd. These entities merged in 1884 to form the Cumberland Railway & Coal Company Ltd., which its investors sold in 1910 to the industrial conglomerate Dominion Coal Company Ltd. (DOMCO). Following the third disaster in 1958, the operator Dominion Steel & Coal Corporation Ltd. (DOSCO), then a subsidiary of the A.V. Roe Canada Company Ltd., shut its mining operations in Springhill, and they were never reopened. As of 2015 the mine properties, among the deepest works in the world and filled with water, are owned by the government of Nova Scotia, and provide Springhill's industrial park with geothermal heating.


1891 EXPLOSION

• Springhill's first mining disaster, the 1891 explosion, occurred at approximately 12:30 pm on Saturday, February 21, 1891, in the Number 1 and Number 2 collieries, which were joined by a connecting tunnel at the 1,300-foot (400 m) level (below the surface) when a fire caused by accumulated coal dust swept through both shafts, killing 125 miners and injuring dozens more. Some of the victims were 10 to 13 years old.

• Rescue efforts throughout that afternoon and evening were made easier by the lack of fire in No. 1 and No. 2, but the scale of the disaster was unprecedented in Nova Scotian or Canadian mining history, and the subsequent relief funds saw contributions come in from across the country and the British Empire, including Queen Victoria.

• A subsequent inquiry determined that sufficient gas detectors in working order had been present in the two collieries; however, the ignition source of the explosion was never determined, despite investigators having pinpointed its general location.


1956 EXPLOSION

• The 1956 explosion occurred on November 1, 1956, when a mine train hauling a load of fine coal dust up to the surface of the 25-year-old Number 4 colliery to remove it from the pithead encountered a heavy flow of ventilation air being forced down the shaft by surface fans. The flow of air disturbed the dust on the ascending train cars and spread throughout the air of the shafts of No. 4. Before the train reached the surface, several cars broke loose and ran back down the slope of No. 4, derailing along the way and hitting a power line, causing it to arc and ignite the coal dust at the 5,500-foot (1,700 m) level (below surface).

• The resulting explosion blew the slope up to the surface where the additional oxygen created a huge blast, which leveled the bankhead on the surface - where the coal is hauled out from the mine in an angled shaft into a vertical building (the coal is then dropped into railway cars). Most of the devastation was sustained by the surface buildings, but many miners were trapped in the shaft along with the derailed train cars and fallen support timbers and other items damaged by the explosion.


• Heroically, Drägermen (rescue miners with breathing equipment) and barefaced miners (without such protection) entered the 6,100-foot-deep (1,900 m) No. 4 to aid their colleagues. 39 miners died, and 88 were rescued. Media coverage of the 1956 explosion was largely overshadowed by the Soviet invasion of Hungary and the Suez Crisis, which happened at about the same time. Nevertheless, Canadian and local media gave extensive coverage to the 1956 disaster.[citation needed]

• After the rescue effort, the connected No. 4 and No. 2 collieries were sealed for several months to deprive the fires of oxygen. In January 1957, the bodies of the remaining casualties were recovered from the pit, and No. 4 colliery closed forever.[citation needed]


BUMP• The 1958 bump, which occurred on October 23, 1958, was the most severe

"bump" (underground earthquake) in North American mining history. The 1958 bump devastated the people of Springhill for the casualties they suffered; it also devastated the town, as the coal industry had been its economic lifeblood.

• It is not exactly known what causes a "bump". It could be the result of coal being totally removed from a bedrock unit or "stratum". The resulting geological stresses upon overlying strata (sandstone, shale, etc., in many coal-bearing formations) may cause the pillars (coal left in place to support the galleries) to suddenly and catastrophically disintegrate, so that the galleries themselves collapse.[citation needed]


• The bump spread as three distinct shock waves, resembling a small earthquake throughout the region, alerting residents on the surface over a wide area to the disaster. "Dräger" teams and teams of barefaced miners entered No. 2 colliery to begin the rescue effort. They encountered survivors at the 13,400-foot (4,100 m) level walking or limping toward the surface. Gas released by the bump was encountered in increasing concentrations at the 13,800-foot (4,200 m) level where the ceiling had collapsed, and rescuers were forced to work down shafts that were in a partial state of collapse or were blocked completely by debris.

• Miners not saved by being either in side galleries or some other shelter were immediately crushed during the bump, the coal galleries and faces being completely destroyed. 75 survivors were on the surface by 4:00 am on October 24, 1958. Rescue teams continued working, but the number of rockfalls and the amount of debris slowed progress.


• Meanwhile, the Canadian and international news media had made their way to Springhill. Arnie Patterson[4]was the public relations spokesman for the Company, and relayed news of the progress of rescue (and later recovery) to the families of the miners and to reporters. The disaster became famous for being the first major international event to appear in live television broadcasts (on the CBC[5]). As the world waited and those on the surface kept their vigil, rescuers continued to toil below ground trying to reach trapped survivors. Teams began to arrive from other coal mines in Cumberland County, on Cape Breton Island and in Pictou County.

• After five and a half days (therefore around the morning of Wednesday, October 29, 1958), contact was established with a group of 12 survivors on the other side of a 160-foot (49 m) rockfall. A rescue tunnel was dug; it broke through to the trapped miners at 2:25 am on Thursday, October 30, 1958.


• On Friday, October 31, 1958, the rescue site was visited by various dignitaries, including the Premier of Nova Scotia, Robert Stanfield, and His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh who had been at meetings in Ottawa.

• On Saturday, November 1, 1958, another group of survivors was found. None were found thereafter. Instead, bodies of the dead were hauled out in airtight aluminum coffins, on account of the advanced stage of decomposition, accelerated by the Earth's heat in the depths of No. 2 mine at 13,000–14,000 feet (4,000–4,300 m) below the mine entrance.

• Of the 174 miners in No. 2 colliery at the time of the bump: 75 died, and 99 were trapped but rescued.


GOLD MEDAL

The rescuers were awarded a Gold Medal by the Royal Canadian Humane Association for bravery in lifesaving, the first time the medal had been awarded to a group.[8]


CARNEGIE MEDAL• In 1958, the town of Springhill

was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Heroism recognizing the community involvement needed to save the surviving miners. As of 2015, Springhill is the only community to have received that award, usually reserved for individual acts of heroism.


COAL SITE

• General view of the Springhill Coal Mining site showing the commemorative plaques and viewscapes throughout the complex as a whole.


THE FISHERMAN'S MONUMENT JUNE 19, 1959


THE FISHERMEN’S MONUMENT

• The Fishermen’s Monument is without a doubt the most impressive labour monument in New Brunswick, as well as its most famous. It commemorates the worst work-related disaster ever to have occurred in the province.

• The tragedy took place on the night of June 19, 1959. That night, 35 fishermen – men and teenagers – disappeared in a violent coastal storm . The event came to be known as the Désastre d'Escuminac, largely because, back then, the Escuminac wharf (located at the mouth of the Miramichi bay) was once the centre of fishing activity for several neighbouring communities .


PARATROOPERS MEMORIAL

1968


CFB PETAWAWA

• CFB PETAWAWA - 26 paratroopers disembarked from their aircraft anticipating a smooth landing on the sandy Mattawa Plains.

• When the three Buffalo transports took off from Bonnechere Airfield, the conditions were favourable for an early evening drop. That drastically changed when the men began exiting the planes at around 8:30 p.m.

• Staring down at the dark, perilous Ottawa River, most knew they were overshooting the drop zone. The wind sheer that caught them off guard propelled 22 of them into the frigid waters off Wegner Point with some landing as far as 1,000 feet offshore.


STOP DROP

• Entangled in their parachutes and weighed down by equipment, most struggled to escape being dragged to the bottom. Some family members watched anxiously from the cliffs above. When rescuers finished pulling what men they could from the water, seven were still missing.

• The night of May 8, 1968 still remembers fresh in the memories of those who lived it. Retired colonel Joe Aitchison was one of the lucky ones. He was on the second pass waiting to exit when the pilots got the word to 'stop drop.'

• "It's something I will never forget for as long as I live," the former paratrooper told a ceremony commemorating the worst training accident in Petawawa history.


GRENADE

• The accident happened when 137 teenagers were given dummy explosive devices during a supervised class at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier on July 30, 1974.

• Among the supposedly safe devices, however, was a live grenade. One of the cadets asked for permission to pull the pin and an instructor assured him it was safe to do so.

• Six boys aged 14 and 15 were killed and more than 60 others were injured.

• http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cadets-grenade-accident-compensation-1.3746700

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cadets-grenade-accident-compensation-1.3746700

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cadets-grenade-accident-compensation-1.3746700


HIGHWAY DISASTERS


HIGHWAY DISASTERS

• Canada's worst road accident to date was a single-vehicle tragedy at Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rive, Québec on 13 October 1997. A bus descending a steep hill suffered brake failure, missed a curve and toppled into a stony ravine, killing 43 people and injuring five. A similar tragedy had occurred at the same spot in 1974 with 13 deaths.

• Previously, the worst bus disaster in Canada occurred near Eastman, Québec, on 4 August 1978. The brakes of a chartered bus failed and it plunged into Lac d'Argent, killing 41 people with physical or mental disabilities. This toll was more than double that of 31 July 1953, when a bus plunged into a canal near Morrisburg, Ontario, drowning 20.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ontario/


CONSTRUCTION WORKERS

• Increasingly, motor vehicle accidents claim multiple victims as large trucks share highways with passenger buses and minibuses. On 28 May 1980, a bus collided with a tanker truck near Swift Current, Saskatchewan, killing 23 Canadian Pacific Railway construction workers.


• On 16 July 1993, a pickup truck towing a fuel trailer collided with a minibus near Lac-Bouchette, Québec. The impact and fire killed 19 people.

• A bus collided with an auto-transport truck in Yamachiche, Québec on 30 January 1954, 15 people died. A group of Roman Catholic brothers were travelling not far behind the ill-fated bus, several of whom rushed to the aid of the passengers.

• http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/highway-disasters/


BUS & TRAIN

• There were also 19 deaths in an accident near Dorion, Québec, on 7 October 1966. That night, a bus driving teenagers to a dance was hit by a Canadian National Railways freight train. After waiting for a passenger train to go by, the rail guards went up and the bus proceeded. Upon entering the intersection, it was hit by the oncoming CNR train. In addition to the 19 immediate fatalities, another died from injuries in the days following the crash, and at least 20 others were injured.

• A CNR freight train colliding with a bus also caused the deaths of 17 high school students on 20 November 1960, in Lamont, Alberta. The students were on their way to school when their bus was hit at a rail crossing.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/vaudreuil-dorion/

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-national-railways/

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/alberta/


LOG SPILL

• On 8 October 1989, 13 people were killed and 45 injured during a Thanksgiving hayride in Cormier Village, New Brunswick. Gathered for their annual reunion, family members on the open, hay-covered wagon were struck by logs that spilled from a tractor-trailer after the rig slid off a curving hill. Many were pinned under the truck’s cargo.

'I don't think any of them who are gone would like us to just stay [stuck in the past] and not live because they're not here anymore.' —Survivor Maria Leger, whose 11-year-old son died

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/new-brunswick/


Saskatoon, SK, Canada

28 INDIVIDUAL PLAQUES



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PART 3 DATES : 1982 – PRESENT DAY• Ocean Danger 1982• Westray 1992• Swiss 1998• Flight 491 - 2009• Lac-Mégantic rail disaster - 2013


OCEAN RANGER1982


SHE’S UNSINKABLE!

WE HEARD THAT BEFORE!

DO YA KNOW WHERE THE TITANIC SANK?Conversation in Newfoundland when the Ocean Ranger arrived


OCEAN RANGER

• Ocean Ranger was a semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit that sank in Canadian waters on 15 February 1982. It was drilling an exploration well on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, 267 kilometres (166 mi) east of St. John's, Newfoundland, for Mobil Oil of Canada, Ltd. (MOCAN) with 84 crew members on board when it sank. There were no survivors.


INCIDENT

• On 26 November 1981, Ocean Ranger commenced drilling well J-34, its third well in the Hibernia Oil Field. Ocean Ranger was still working on this well in February 1982 when the incident occurred. Two other semi-submersible platforms were also drilling nearby: Sedco 706, 8.5 miles (13.7 km) NNE, and Zapata Ugland, 19.2 miles (30.9 km) N of Ocean Ranger. On 14 February 1982, the platforms received reports of an approaching storm linked to a major Atlantic cyclone from NORDCO Ltd, the company responsible for issuing offshore weather forecasts.


MAYDAY

• The usual method of preparing for bad weather involved hanging-off the drillpipe at the sub-sea wellhead and disconnecting the riser from the sub-sea blowout preventer. Due to surface difficulties and the speed at which the storm developed, the crew of Ocean Ranger were forced to shear the drillpipe after hanging-off, after which they disconnected the riser in the early evening.

• At 00:52 local time, on 15 February, a Mayday call was sent out from Ocean Ranger, noting a severe list to the port side of the rig and requesting immediate assistance. This was the first communication from Ocean Ranger identifying a major problem.


LOCATION


MEMORIAL


WESTRAY 1992


A STATE OF THE ART COAL MINE• The Westray Mine was a coal mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Westray was owned and operated by Curragh Resources Incorporated (Curragh Inc.), which obtained both provincial and federal government money to open the mine, and supply local electrical power utilities with coal. It opened in September 1991, but closed eight months later when it was the site of an underground methane explosion on May 9, 1992, killing all 26 miners working underground at the time. The week-long attempts to rescue the miners were widely followed by national media until it was obvious there would be no survivors.


https://www.evensi.ca/westray-25-years-later-join-us-on-may-9th-2017-nova-scotia/204191019

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LESSONS LEARNED

• The Government of Canada, through the Department of Justice, should institute a study of the accountability of corporate executives and directors for the wrongful or negligent acts of the corporation and should introduce in the Parliament of Canada such amendments to legislation as are necessary to ensure that corporate executives and directors are held properly accountable for workplace safety.” Justice Richard

DUTY OF PERSONS DIRECTING WORK

• “Every one who undertakes, or has the authority to direct how another person does work or performs a task is under a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to that person, or any other person arising from that work or task.”


POLITICIANS…

Single Minded

Never become so single minded in your pursuit for jobs and political profit that your responsibility and common sense become blurred.

Big Picture

Never forget about your responsibility to look after the big picture.

Forget

Never forget that you were elected to look out for the best interests of the province (country) and its people.

Influence

Remember your spoken and unspoken influence on staff.

Cost

Never let the rule be jobs at any cost.

Politics

Never be blinded by your politics.


PUBLICSERVANTS

• Remember your job is to serve the people of this province.

• First and foremost, ensure compliance with the laws you administer.

• Ask the awkward questions.• Never become complacent.• Tell people when you are in over your head.• Never go along with a system that is not working.• Value your independence.• Be the voice for those that cannot speak for themselves.• Always question why.• Listen and act when workers raise concerns.• Back them up when concerns are valid.• Give them confidence to speak.


EMPLOYERS• Safety is part and parcel of running a business.• Build it into your plans.• Put it on your balance sheet.• Never make people choose between a pay cheque and

their lives.• Do not cut corners.• Do not bend the rules.• Remember that safety and profit are not mutually

exclusive - they go hand in hand.• Don’t wait to react to problems - deal with them up front.• Focus on prevention.• Understand your responsibilities.• Care about your workforce.• Always remember that every incident can be prevented.


EMPLOYEES

Look out for yourself and your co-workers on the job.Look outTake the time to learn your rights.TakeBecome informed and involved in safety.BecomeRaise red flags.RaiseDon’t cut corners.Don’t cutStand up for your rights. Stand upJoin forces with others. JoinCall in help whenever it’s needed.Call in



SWISSAIR 111 1998


FLIGHT 111

• Swissair Flight 111 (ICAO: SWR111) was a scheduled international passenger flight from New York City, United States, to Geneva, Switzerland. This flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air Lines. On 2 September 1998, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 performing this flight, registration HB-IWF, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax International Airport at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. The crash site was 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from shore, roughly equidistant from the tiny fishing and tourist communities of Peggys Cove and Bayswater.


229 PASSENGERS & CREW

• All 229 passengers and crew aboard the MD-11 died—the highest death toll of any McDonnell Douglas MD-11 accident in aviation history,[2] and the second-highest of any air disaster to occur in Canada, after Arrow Air Flight 1285, which crashed in 1985 with 256 fatalities. This is one of the three MD-11 accidents with passenger fatalities along with China Eastern Airlines Flight 583 and another hull loss of China Airlines Flight 642.


Rescue

2 million pieces 1 person visually identified


Memorial


FLIGHT 491 2009


COUGAR HELICOPTERS FLIGHT 91

Flight 91[1] (also known as Flight 491) was a scheduled flight of a Cougar Sikorsky S-92A (Registration C-GZCH)[3] which ditched on 12 March 2009 en route to the SeaRose FPSO in the White Rose oil field and Hibernia Platform in the Hibernia oilfield off the coast of Newfoundland 55 kilometres (34 mi) east-southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland. Of the eighteen aboard, only one survived.


INVESTIGATION


PROMISE

• A memorial for those killed in two offshore helicopter crashes in the province was unveiled at Quidi Vidi Lake in St. John's on Wednesday morning.

• The provincial government promised to erect a monument two-and-a-half years ago.


LAC-MÉGANTIC RAIL DISASTER

2013


LAC-MÉGANTIC RAIL DISASTER

• The Lac-Mégantic rail disaster occurred in the town of Lac-Mégantic, in the Eastern Townships of the Canadian province of Quebec, at approximately 01:15 EDT,[1][2] on July 6, 2013, when an unattended 74-car freight train carrying Bakken Formation crude oil rolled down a 1.2% grade from Nantes and derailed downtown, resulting in the fire and explosion of multiple tank cars. Forty-two people were confirmed dead, with five more missing and presumed dead.[3] More than 30 buildings in the town's centre, roughly half of the downtown area, were destroyed,[2] and all but three of the thirty-nine remaining downtown buildings are to be demolished due to petroleum contamination of the townsite.[4] Initial newspaper reports described a 1-kilometre (0.6 mi) blast radius.[5]


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CANADA 150 1867 - 2017


Wilson Bateman

major safety incidents in canada the last 150 years

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