WorkSafeBC issues fines over woman’s death in Oakridge crane incident

Two companies that were involved in a series of crane-related incidents in 2024 and 2025, including an incident at Oakridge Park that resulted in the death of a construction worker, have been fined.

WorkSafeBC has issued a total of $1.3 million in fines to EllisDon Corp. and Newway Concrete Forming.

EllisDon has been fined $515,000 and Newway $113,000 in connection with the death of Yuridia Flores, who was killed when a crane’s load came crashing down and hit her at the Oakridge construction site at Cambie and 41st Avenue on Feb. 21, 2024.

EllisDon was the prime contractor at the high-rise construction site, while Newway Concrete Forming was the provider of the concrete formwork service at the site.

“A concrete forming subcontractor was using a tower crane to lift a flytable from one floor to another,” WorkSafeBC said about the incident that resulted in Flores’ death.

“As the rigged flytable was being pushed, it accelerated out of the side of the building and fell to the ground, striking and fatally injuring a worker.”

Ellis Don has also been fined almost $690,000 in connection with two other crane-related incidents — one at the Oakridge Park site and one in Victoria — this year. No serious injuries were reported in those incidents.

In an emailed statement, EllisDon says it is reviewing WorkSafeBC’s decision to impose the penalties, adding the company “remains steadfast” in its commitment to people’s safety on its sites.

“We continue to be diligent and are always exploring new and innovative ways to strengthen and enhance our safety program, ensuring that safety remains at the core of everything we do,” the statement says.

Newway Concrete did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

WorkSafeBC says in the announcement of the fines that both companies had multiple high-risk violations'' of work site safety rules, including EllisDon having an inadequateground exclusion zone” under suspended loads that were not controlled.

“WorkSafeBC’s investigation determined the firm had not conducted regular reviews of the subcontractors’ safe work procedures, did not confirm that a risk assessment had been conducted, and had not identified the lift on the day of the incident as a critical lift,” the agency says of EllisDon’s violations at Oakridge.

“The firm failed to ensure regular inspections were conducted to prevent the development of unsafe working conditions, and failed to ensure its workplace was planned and maintained to protect workers from danger.”

Newway Concrete, meanwhile, was found to have “a lack of training and communication for ground control workers and control zones, inadequate procedures for flying corner tables, a lack of risk assessments and inspections, and a lack of adherence to critical life requirements.”

The company is said to have lacked instructions to show step-by-step procedures for moving the mould, and didn’t make sure the equipment used was “capable of performing its functions.”

The provincial agency had said earlier that Flores never should have been standing where she was when she was killed.

It also identified EllisDon’s lack of an adequate lift plan for both of its 2025 crane-related accidents, including one case where a loaded canopy’s sharp edge cut a rigging sling, resulting in the load falling from a balcony to a lower level.

— With files from The Canadian Press.