Family of Kelowna crane collapse victims seek answers

More than two and a half years later, the families of the victims killed in a tragic crane collapse in Kelowna are still begging for answers.

The Kelowna RCMP has finally completed its investigation of the incident, which killed five people in 2021, and criminal charges have been recommended. The decision behind those charges now lays in the hands of BC Prosecution Service, who will conduct a criminal charge assessment.

Chris Vilness, a father of one of the victims, says just he wants to “know the whole story.”

“Who took my son’s life into their own hands and made a catastrophic decision to put an end to it?” he asked.

“To allow those, basically kids, young men, on the tower that day, who didn’t have the experience, had never taken a tower crane down, who made that call? The other piece is what happened on the tower that day to cause it to fail?”

The Kelowna RCMP has not announced whom the charges are recommended against, and Vilness says there are still so many questions left unanswered.

Vilness says his son, 23-year-old Cailen Vilness, had been working in construction for a few years but was not experienced enough to disassemble a tower crane.

“A parent should never have to get that call. Cailen shouldn’t have had to go to work and not be able to come home,” he said.

“Like all of these men, they were young with families. Some had kids, Cailen never had the opportunity to have any. There was a lot of life taken that day.”

In a statement, WorkSafe BC says it will not be releasing its incident investigation report so that it doesn’t affect the charge assessment process.

Crane safety recommendations have been made since the accident, but experts say those changes have yet to be implemented.

Josh Towsley, assistant business manager with the industry union IUOE U15, says a change in mindset is needed if B.C. is to become a leader in tower crane safety.

“The best way to prevent it is for our industry, the government and the regulators to decide that this type of incident isn’t acceptable anymore,” said Towsley.

There’s been two accidents involving the disassembling of tower cranes in Metro Vancouver in the last month. The International Union of Operating Engineers is calling for a mandatory certification for those operating on cranes.

“It’s fairly rare to have a criminal investigation tied to an industrial accident, so the fact that we’ve gotten to the point where charges are recommended is an important first step,” said …

Lawyers representing Stemmer Construction, the company involved in the Kelowna collapse, tells The Leader Spirit in a statement that it’s unhappy with the RCMP’s recent announcement.

“The decision of the RCMP to publicize the result of their investigation while remaining unwilling to name the parties who they say are criminally responsible or the basis upon which they have reached the decision is, in our opinion, both highly unusual and inappropriate,” the company wrote.