The unusual circumstances surrounding an industrial accident Tuesday, in which a crane overturned at a construction site, could make it exempt from a WorkSafe B.C. investigation.
A crane operator was seriously injured when the crane he was operating at a Kingdom Hall construction site at Shelbourne and Ryan streets rolled and he was impaled on a metal rod. He is recovering in hospital following surgery to remove the metal.
There was confusion yesterday over whether the provincial regulatory body overseeing workplace safety has jurisdiction.
The Kingdom Hall construction workers are all volunteers, and it appears they are not covered by WorkSafe rules, said spokeswoman Donna Freeman.
"If it turns out to be the case [the workers are volunteers], then we will not have regulatory jurisdiction over the incident," she said.
"The caveat to that is this remains a site where other workers may enter -- for instance, there may be delivery of construction materials -- and our officer is continuing to make inquiries.
"Even if we don't have jurisdiction over [the] incident, we want to make sure any worker under the act who would be accessing that site would be accessing it safely," Freeman said.
She said the work site may fall under safety rules similar to those for such organizations as Habitat for Humanity, which uses volunteer labour to build homes.
