Incidents
Annual State of Safety 2023
Incidents
We investigate incidents to learn more about the factors that surround decisions and behaviours that may lead to technical failure or the potential for increased safety risk in the future. We publish incident investigation summaries to document our findings across all technologies and share this information to empower clients and the public alike to make better safety-minded decisions. In 2023, the number of incidents reported to us increased by 51, or 15% compared to 2022.
Equipment Failure Not Always to Blame for Incidents
When we hear about incidents in the news, oftentimes the assumption would be to blame failing equipment. In truth, incidents are caused and influenced by a myriad of factors. Over the years, our incident investigation team has identified factors such as design standards, misunderstandings during communication, missing signage and more which can all have a negative impact on safety outcomes.
In 2023, we investigated an incident where a roofer was injured upon contact with an energized, high voltage bus bar. The roofer was working on a ladder preparing for drain connections in an industrial building when they came into contact with the exposed, unmarked bus bar. The high voltage shocked and injured the roofer on the elbow and wrist. They also suffered from a broken pelvis and shoulder injury as a result of falling from the ladder.
This incident may have been prevented with proper signage on the building to warn workers of electrical hazards, especially if it were to be accessed by unregulated workers performing work around regulated equipment. Controlled access to the building, adherence to safety protocols, and communication to new workers about hazards inside the building would be the first steps in mitigating the risk of injury. Additionally marking the bus bar as a hazardous area may be another important step to prevent injury.
Our Approach to Incidents
Incidents involving work or equipment regulated by the Safety Standards Act are required to be reported to the appropriate safety manager at Technical Safety BC. We investigate many of these incidents to gain an understanding of safety hazards in BC and determine what actions can be taken to manage them.
We complete investigations on certain incidents reported to us in all technologies except for rail*. We investigate incidents reported to us when:
- Regulated work or regulated equipment is involved.
- Evidence is available to help determine causes and contributing factors.
- A learning opportunity exists to understand and document what caused the incident, and to inform prevention of similar incidents.
*Our railway team performs audits and investigations under the Railway Safety Act.
Incident Categories
| Under Assessment | Still being assessed by Technical Safety BC and was not assigned to a category as of time of data collection. |
| Insignificant | An incident that resulted with insignificant and/or insignificant equipment damage |
| Minor | An incident that resulted with minor injury and/or minor equipment damage |
| Moderate | An incident that resulted with moderate injury and/or equipment damage |
| Major | An incident that resulted with major injury and/or major equipment damage. |
| Severe | An incident that resulted with a fatal injury and/or severe equipment damage. |