Landscaping company slapped with stop-work order after inspector found ‘high risk of serious injury’

A company that had workers felling trees on a Moray Street property was hit with a stop-work order and a $2,500 fine after being cited for several high-risk violations, according to a report from WorkSafeBC.

Best Landscaping and Tree Services’ violations included unqualified workers, inadequate planning, as well as lack of protective equipment used by the crew using chainsaws to chop down trees at 112 Moray Street.

There were reasonable grounds to suspect a “high risk of serious injury or death” to a worker on the site,” according to a WorkSafeBC report. The agency issued a stop-work order Feb. 2.

When surveying the site, the inspector noticed a skid steer loader “appeared to have been struck by a large, felled Douglas-fir tree.”

The inspector saw one worker fell a tree despite not being a skilled-trades trained arborist or a certified hand faller. Another worker who was chopping up the felled tree also lacked formal training.

Three workers were using chainsaws without wearing leg protective pants, including one who wasn’t using a face shield.

“This is a high-risk violation because chainsaws can kick back violently and strike a worker’s face,” the inspector noted.

The inspector noted two trees measuring 36 and 33 metres tall, respectively, that were felled as full-length trees.

“Both of these trees could have struck the powerline if they had fallen in an unintended direction,” the inspector wrote, adding that a cedar tree on site that had fallen in an unintended direction.

There was also “no record of the employer’s effort to avoid striking the high voltage powerline when falling trees that could strike the line,” according to WorkSafeBC.

“The workers at this workplace were unable to provide any written record of any planning done prior to commencing tree falling, limbing or bucking trees at this worksite,” the inspector wrote.

Some trees had substandard undercuts, which can cause the tree to split or fall in the wrong direction, “resulting in the worker being struck by the tree or broken debris,” the report stated.

The fine was levied March 11.