Two road workers killed in rollover of highway paving equipment

(Canadian OH&S News) — An accident at a road work zone resulted in the deaths of two workers on July 25, when the asphalt reclaimer they were operating rolled over into a ditch near Beaverlodge, Alta., not far from the British Columbia border.

Information on the incident was limited, but Sergeant Dave Gallant of the RCMP’s Beaverlodge detachment confirmed that two male workers had been fatally injured in the incident while on the job repaving a highway.

“They were crushed,” said Sgt. Gallant.

The work zone is located on Highway 672 near Range Road 81, according to Alberta Ministry of Labour spokesperson Gurshan Dhillon. Occupational health and safety officials from the Ministry are investigating the incident.

“There was a stop-use order issued on the piece of equipment,” said Dhillon, adding that the Ministry had also issued a stop-work order on the road reclamation process on the worksite on July 27.

Highway 672 was closed between Range Road 81 and Range Road 82 following the accident and remained so the following morning, as oh&s authorities continued their investigation there.

Ledcor Group, a construction and building company headquartered in Vancouver, is the main contractor for the paving project, Dhillon confirmed. “But the employers were from Lafarge, who is a subcontractor,” he added.

Lafarge, a diversified supplier of construction materials throughout North America, has one of its three main offices in Calgary.

Both Sgt. Gallant and Dhillon said that they had never heard of a rollover accident involving paving equipment like this before.

“I have never heard of it,” said Sgt. Gallant. “Not that I know of.”

Beaverlodge is located about 43 kilometres northwest of the city of Grande Prairie.