A 46-year-old employee of Railserve Inc. was seriously injured after falling from the top of a rail car at Dow Chemicals’ Prentiss plant near Blackfalds this week.
The worker, a contractor for Dow Chemicals, fell about eight metres (25-feet) while cleaning the top of a tanker car at 1:18 a.m. on Thursday.
Occupational Health and Safety said the man was not wearing fall protection equipment such as a harness, when he climbed up onto the rounded tanker.
Dow’s Emergency Response Team immediately responded to the workplace accident, treating the injured man on site and calling for an ambulance, said Katherine Salloum, spokesperson for Dow Chemicals.
Brookes Merritt, a spokesperson for Occupational Health and Safety, said the worker was taken to Red Deer hospital with multiple fractures. Salloum heard he was in stable condition.
Both Dow Chemicals and Occupational Health and Safety are continuing to investigate the fall — as is Railserve Inc.
Tim Pullen, vice-president of human resources for Railserve, based in Atlanta, Georgia, said his company is concerned about the accident, as “safety is always a top priority for us.”
Since the matter is under investigation Pullen said he couldn’t say much else. “We will be reporting our findings to the appropriate authorities.”
No other serious workplace accidents were reported at Dow Chemicals’ Prentiss plant, or with Railserve Inc. workers lately. In fact, Merritt said that Railserve’s lost time claim rate indicates that safety at the company has been steadily improving since 2007.