Man suffers minor injuries after work site accident

By Greg McNeil
Cape Breton Post
Sat., May 16, 2009

Sydney - One man was transported to hospital with suspected minor injuries following a work site accident at the Harbourside Industrial Park.

Cape Breton Regional Police were called to the scene Friday around 12:30 p.m. and quickly completed their investigation. According to Sgt. Max Sehl, a man fell from a mechanical lift located at a new building at the Inglis Street site in Sydney. "He was just working on the side wall inside that building about half way up so probably no more than 8-10 feet off the ground."

When the man fell from the lift, he landed on a gravel surface. "There is a gate cage around those platforms and he never had the gate closed," Sehl suspected. "They were working on the wall, doing some welding to the side of the wall or something and he must have took one step a little too far," said the regional police officer.

Sehl said it is standard practice for police to stop work at the site once such calls come in. "In a case like this what we did was rope off the area that was involved and the piece of machinery involved and then the crew can go back to work in the other areas. You could see that it wasn't anything to do with the equipment . . . so they didn't have to worry about any faults with the similar equipment being used."

The police investigation of the case has been completed. The file is now in the hands of Nova Scotia Labour and Workforce Development.

Karen Stone, director of communications at the provincial department, confirmed an individual did fall from a mechanical lift and an investigator is looking into the matter.

As of late Friday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Cape Breton District Health Authority said the man was in hospital in good condition