City worker killed in mishap
Branch crushed man inside picker bucket
A city worker was killed Thursday morning after he was pinned inside a cherry picker by a falling branch while pruning trees in a Vancouver park.
The accident took place around 9:30 a.m. in Vancouver’s Connaught Park in Kitsilano. According to Brett Mineer with WorkSafe B.C., the worker was inside the bucket of an elevated boom-arm truck, pruning dead branches from the tree.
“When this all took place, a City of Vancouver employee was removing limbs from trees in Connaught Park. He was up in a cherry picker, a boom truck,” said Mineer. “Somehow, a large-diameter tree limb crushed the worker against the inside of the bucket.”
Mineer said the worker was taken to hospital. The City of Vancouver confirmed the man didn’t survive.
“The City of Vancouver and the park board are deeply saddened to report that a workplace fatality of a park board arborist occurred this morning,” read a statement from the City of Vancouver on Thursday. “WorkSafe B.C. is at the location where the incident occurred and Vancouver Police Department’ s Victim Services Unit is also on site .”
On Thursday afternoon, a stretch of the park’s northern edge and sidewalk was taped off by WorkSafe B.C. investigators, who were combing the scene. Two large tree branches could be seen on the ground, surrounded by a number of smaller branches. Nearby, a pile of logs sat next to a wood chipper.
Parked at the edge of the park was a white City of Vancouver truck, with a cherry picker folded vertically, its attached bucket sitting on the grass. A large dark reddish-brown smear could be seen on the end of the boom arm.
“We have prevention officers, engineers, accident investigators at the scene trying to understand how it happened and to get a complete picture of what happened,” said Mineer. “The investigation is really just getting started.”