Jacki Fuhrmamn’s father Jim Jamieson was killed three years ago at work while unloading an unstable load from a transport truck.
Every year on April 28 you can find Fuhrmamn at Mountain View Cemetery for a mourning memorial.
It’s part of a national effort for family and friends to remember workers killed, injured or disabled on the job.
“He chose to stand on top of the unstable load while it was being unloaded with the forklift,” Fuhrmamn said. “While he was on it, once it was out of the trailer, the load shifted which threw my father through the air….(the load) pinned him between the load and the trailer. He had multiple internal injuries which caused him to bleed out in a matter of four and a half hours.”
Last year, 144 Albertans were killed on the job.
Melissa Craig, the manager of Integrated Risk Management at the City of Lethbridge says communication is key when it comes to creating a safe working environment.
“Working together at the union level, employer level, as well as the worker/supervisor level to make sure that we’re doing our best every day to be aware of, and look for different workplace hazards and then taking the time to asses those and implement proper controls,” Craig said.
Craig said ultimately it’s up to the worker to make the right decisions.
“No job is that important to risk your life for it, or the life of any of your coworkers or anyone else,” Craig said.
Fuhrmamn believes her father would still be here today if he would have used this advice.
“They could have taken the time to secure the load properly but because he felt pressured to be where he needed to be and to avoid being reprimanded for it, he did it unsafe, which cost him his life,” Fuhrmamn said.
The National Day of Mourning was officially recognized by the Canadian government in 1991. Since then the Day of Mourning has spread to about 80 countries around the world.
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