Canada Tanks Collapse
An article from this week about construction accidents in Alberta, Canada, has me wondering whether Canada is as worker-friendly as many Americans think. According to an article by the Canadian Press, a storage tank collapsed at a farm tank site for Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. in Alberta. Nobody was hurt, but it was the second tank collapse at the same work site in a month -- the first one killed two workers and injured four. The tank that collapsed was reported to have fewer than half of the normal number of cables holding it up. And the article mentions that a third tank is already suspected of being on the verge of collapse! The Alberta Federation of Labor, a workers' union, has rightly called for the Canadian federal government to shut down the contractor in charge of the site, but a spokesman for the government says that's premature.
We aren't Canadian attorneys here at Wingate, Russotti & Shapiro, but we know a construction site in any country can be dangerous, because by their nature, they're full of heavy equipment, exposed wiring and other potential hazards. That's why workers wear helmets and often work under safety laws that regulate the work site's conditions. Unfortunately, as the article shows, accidents often happen anyway. Sometimes, as with one of our past construction accident clients, they happen to innocent people who just happen to be passing by. In New York, we're fortunate to have a law that allows injured workers to sue negligent companies who are responsible for their injuries while also collecting workers' compensation payments. I'm sure this is partly responsible for the excellent results we've achieved for our New York construction injury clients. Unfortunately, until Alberta -- and other provinces and states -- adopts stringent liability standards similar to New York's, contractors will probably keep putting the bottom line over worker safety.
