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4 economist sunsuntribune news saturday sept 13 2003 use workers death as safety example coroners jury by jeff mitchell staff writer armindo franciscos death at a markham construction site should be used as an example to encour age workplace safety a coroners jury concluded the toronto mans death in a fall from the second story of a house under construction in october 2001 can be used to illustrate how seem ingly lowrisk jobs can in fact be very dangerous the jury told coro ner dirk huyer wednesday the jury also suggested making regular retraining on fall proteci tion mandatory for construction workers another recommendation was adopting a uniform approach to alerting workers of unsafe weather conditions two days were devoted to testi mony about mr franciscos death the 53yearold toronto man was nailing plywood to wall studs when a gust of wind swept him from the unfinished second floor of the house to the ground he died of severe chest trauma the inquest heard the hearing began last monday in sharon north of newmarket mr francisco was not wearing a safety harness even though he and his nephew had safety gear in their yah the jury heard his nephew ricardina fernandez testified the men had not tied off because they were not planning to raise the walls and were keeping away from the edge of the second floor ah eyewitness account of mr franciscos fall depicted him carry ing a fourbyeight foot sheet of ply wood when a gust of wind caught it and carried him off the second floor the main recommendation was submitted to the jury by coroners counsel harold dale at the conclu sion of testimony we would urge anyone on a construction site to be aware of the facts of this case how a situation that appears to be lowrisk can be very risky it was endorsed by lawyers rep resenting the ministry a construc tion workers union and the home builder for whom mr francisco was working when he died it was accepted among the par ties who made submissions that mr franciscos death was an unfortu- nate accident they urged the jury to press for initiatives to push awareness of the hazards that lurk on job sites but might be taken for granted by work ers mr francisco died as a result of a freakish occurrence said nicholas keresztesi the lawyer representing universal workers tjnioh local 183 they were working 13 feet off the ground they may hot have felt it was all that risky mr keresztesi said asituatioh where youre work ing on a second floor may not be considered a highrisk circum stance he said the jury heard extremely high winds the day of the incident prompted the construction site manager to order some trades to cease work mr fernandez testified he and his uncle were also preparing to call it a day when the accident occurred mr francisco could have tied off but did not because the per ceived risk was low mr keresztesi said r we would urge anyone on a construction site to be aware of the facts of this case howa situation that appears to be lowrisk can be very risky he said the men were working on a laurier homes project in a new sub division east of mccowan road and south of major mackenzie drive an investigation by the ministry of labour determined no charges were warranted the ministry probe did not point to significant shortcomings on anybodys part mr keresztesi said a unique concept in alzheimer care 9059474566 alzheimer coffee break september 15 to 20th to support alzheimer coffee break sunrise will donate 1 for every person who drops in for a coffee from september 15th to 20th day guest to our home sue hart director of alzheimer society thursday september 18 10 am sunrise assisted living- of unionville 38 swansea road unionville highway 7 east of kennedy get the ticket to one of the hottest shows in our new professional entertainment season come javur the tastes of iur community a multicultural event i m sunday september 24 103 3 20 pm 4s0 pm markham stouffville hospital nest rdi niiijj iv r free admission ftia m authentic food from all parts 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