One worker dead, one seriously injured in separate construction accidents

One worker is dead and another clinging to life after two separate construction accidents in downtown Vancouver Thursday morning.

"It’s an unprecedented day, a terrible day," said Lee Coonfer, a spokesman for Ledcor construction.

Mike Shardlow, CEO of Canada Place, said at 7:50 a.m., a worker on the northeast section of Canada Place construction site "had a significant fall" and was taken to hospital.

"Just after 11 a.m., we were notified the worker had life-threatening injuries," he said. "Our thoughts are with the family and friends."

Coonfer said the injured worker was working for a New York subcontractor that works with tensile fabric.

Just after 8 a.m., a Ledcor employee was killed at a construction site in the 1100-block of West Cordova after being struck by a concrete-pouring form, said WorkSafeBC spokeswoman Donna Freeman.

The workers’ names and ages have not yet been released.

“It’s highly unusual for us to see two events of this type in a short amount of time,” said Freeman.

Both incidents were reported to WorkSafeBC by Ledcor and by Vancouver Police.

WorkSafeBC is investigating both incidents.