N.B. jury makes recommendations to improve construction site safety after 2021 death

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A jury at a coroner’s inquest has made six recommendations to improve construction site safety following the death of Preston Allen in Fredericton more than three years ago.

The inquest spent two days this week examining the death of Allen, which happened after he suffered blunt force trauma to the head during a fall on Dec. 6, 2021.

The jury found Allen’s death to be an accident. It also made the following recommendations to WorkSafeNB:

-educate new and existing companies and employers with resources and consulting services prior to accidents

-establish a partnership with provincial or regional construction safety associations to provide online education about erecting and using scaffolding for employers and employees

-ensure there is an adequate number of inspectors in the construction sector

-gain access to available building permit data or its equivalent

-use available building permit data to identify appropriate work sites for inspection

-conduct a minimum amount of random or unannounced site inspections each month

Coroner’s inquests do not make any findings of legal responsibility, nor do they assign blame.

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