A recently released coroner’s report is shedding more light on the workplace accident in Spallumcheen that killed a 50-year-old Kamloops truck driver in December of 2014.
John Elliott Sleypen was crushed when some of the wood he was delivering to Rapid Span fell on him on the afternoon of December 3, 2014. The report concludes he died of “multiple blunt force trauma” after some timbers, which weighed around 165 kg each, came off his vehicle and hit him.
The coroner says Sleypen walked to one side of the vehicle to remove some straps while a forklift unloaded timbers from the other side.
“As the forklift operator was leaving with the first two lifts he heard a crash. He looked back to see the trailers shaking. He returned to the trailers to find that the top lifts of timbers on the passenger side directly behind the tractor unit had slid off the trailer onto Mr. Sleypen,” wrote coroner Margaret Janzen in her report.
Staff worked to pull the wood off of Sleypen and called an ambulance but he could not be saved.
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The coroner says a federal investigation into Sleypen’s death found “safe unloading procedures” were not followed.
“Their report cited four main causal factors for this incident. First, contrary to safe unloading procedures Mr. Sleypen was opposite the forklift in the most dangerous zone to be in during the unloading process. Second, the airbags on the trailer were not deflated of some pressure prior to unloading; as a result when the first lifts were removed the driver’s side airbag lifted up first before leveling causing the load to shift,” writes Janzen, summarizing the findings of Employment and Social Development Canada. “Third, the tractor trailer unit was parked on a slight incline. Fourth, there was ice and snow on the dunnage and trailer and the plastic tarp was slippery.”
Sleypen was an employee of Kamloops based Valley Roadways Ltd. The coroner says the company is telling new truck drivers about Sleypen’s death and has “made efforts to implement Employment and Social Development Canada’s recommendations.”
The coroner says in the wake of Sleypen’s death, the company receiving the delivery that day has also taken action.
“Written unloading procedures were produced which included ensuring that drivers are instructed to proceed to the correct unloading location, drivers dump air from trailer airbags where necessary, and drivers are to move a safe distance away from the load but stay within communication distance with the forklift,” writes Janzen.
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