Incident and Hazard Reporting - Passenger Ropeways and Passenger Conveyors

A. General Details

This information bulletin is being issued to clarify incident reporting requirements. It is issued with respect to sections 36 and 37 of the Safety Standards Act, section 34 of the Safety Standards General Regulation and section 20 of the Elevating Devices Safety Regulation.

How to report incidents and hazards to Technical Safety BC

For emergency assistance call 911 or your local police or fire department directly.

Incidents and hazards are to be reported to Technical Safety BC through our website reporting portal. Alternatively, duty holders may call our customer service line at 1 866 566 7233.

Note: voicemail and email messages made to Technical Safety BC employees concerning incidents and hazards are not considered to have been reported to Technical Safety BC as required by regulation.

Definitions

"incident": A failure of a regulated product, work or operation that causes:a) damage to property, personal injury or deathb) damage to safety features

Note:

• Property damage or injury focuses on the impact that the failed equipment may have had outside the boundaries of the product, work or operation.
• Damage to safety features relates to failures where the damage:
  • is limited to the failed product, work or operation and
  • does not render the product or activity inoperative and
  • impairs the safety feature’s effectiveness.

"safety feature": An aspect of a product’s design, installation, maintenance or operation that is intended to prevent people or property from being exposed to a hazard.

"hazard": A source of potential harm to persons or potential damage to property.

"duty holder": A person or company who is responsible for compliance because they either own regulated products, or perform regulated work.

Reporting of incidents to Technical Safety BC

The following duty holders are required to report all incidents to Technical Safety BC:

• Person in charge of a regulated product or regulated work
• Owner of the regulated product
• Permit holder
• Person authorized to perform or performing regulated work
• Person authorized to operate or operating a regulated product
• An officer or employee of a utility
• Owner of a plant (as defined in the regulations)

Only one incident report per incident is required.

Duty to preserve incident site for investigation

A person must not remove, disturb or interfere with anything in, on or about the place where the incident occurred except as necessary to rescue a person, prevent injury or to protect property unless directed by a safety officer or safety manager.

Incidents involving passenger ropeways as indicated on page 3 must be evacuated and shut down immediately and must not be repaired or returned to service without the permission of a provincial safety officer.

Reporting of hazards to Technical Safety BC

Hazards are required to be prevented or immediately corrected by duty holders that are responsible for the regulated product, work or operation. Hazards must be immediately reported to Technical Safety BC when:

• it is not known that the hazard is being corrected by the duty holder or
• the same or similar hazards have been repeatedly observed and are associated with the same duty holder. 

When to report incidents and hazards to Technical Safety BC

For emergency assistance call 911 or your local police or fire department directly.

Incidents:

Unless otherwise indicated, all incidents are to be reported within the following timeframes:

• Incidents resulting in a moderate, major or fatal injury – immediately
• Incidents resulting in moderate, major or severe damage – immediately
• All other incidents – within 24 hours (or as soon as practicable).

Moderate injuries are those that, while serious, are considered unlikely have a significant effect to long-term quality of life. Examples include single limb fractures, concussions, disorientation.

Moderate damage is damage that results with controlled exposure to energy (ie. electrical, thermal, mechanical) or the limited/controlled release of substances intended to be contained.

Hazards:

All hazards as described in the ‘reporting of hazards’ section above are to be reported to Technical Safety BC immediately.

What to expect after reporting an incident or hazard to Technical Safety BC

Technical Safety BC tracks and investigates incidents and hazards that are reported to inform awareness and prevention initiatives. Consequently, Technical Safety BC does not investigate all reported incidents and may not follow-up with a notification unless there is an intention to investigate.

Summaries of all reported incidents and completed investigations can be accessed via Technical Safety BC at /safety-information/incident-data. Technical Safety BC protects the identity of persons who report or may be involved with incidents or hazards.

Unless otherwise indicated, duty holders are required to preserve the equipment, products and items involved in an incident. Technical Safety BC will contact duty holders within 24 hours of the next regular business day following the report of an incident if more information is required or an investigation is planned to occur.

B. Examples of passenger ropeways incidents and hazards

Passenger ropeway incidents that are required to be reported

• *Deropement of an above surface ropeway
• Deropement of a surface ropeway where the rope has:
  • *not been retained by a rope catching device
  • been retained by a rope catching device
• *Incidents that result with a manual evacuation
• Incidents that result with the use of an evacuation drive
• Power failures that result with the use of an evacuation drive
• *Failure of any electrical or mechanical component that results in the loss of control such as:
  • failure of slow or stop commands
  • acceleration beyond design rates
  • self-starts
  • overspeed
  • unintentional reversal
• *Failure of any safety device and control to function as intended
• *Failure of any structural component such as;
  • terminal
  • tower
  • bullwheel
  • shafts
  • sheave
  • axel
  • grip
  • carrier
• *Avalanche, earthquake, geotechnical or weather event affecting the regulated equipment
  • during operation
  • not during operation
• *Person(s) left on the ropeway after the termination of daily operations
• Any incident resulting in an injury as a result of the use or operation of a passenger ropeway or passenger conveyor:
  • *injuries that are suspected to have a significant effect on long-term quality of life (major or fatal)
  • any other injury
• Falls from carriers outside the loading or unloading area on an above surface ropeway
• *Damage to ropeways caused from contact between the regulated equipment and snow-making or snow grooming vehicles, other types of vehicles or other types of equipment (includes entanglements with winch cat equipment).

*Equipment involved with incidents of this nature must be evacuated and shut down immediately and must not be repaired or returned to service without the permission of a provincial safety officer.

Passenger ropeway occurrences that are not reportable incidents (to Technical Safety BC)

• Damage to ropeway equipment that is discovered during regular maintenance
• Falls within loading/unloading areas that do not result in injury as a result of rider attention or ability 

Examples of passenger ropeway hazards that should be reported to Technical Safety BC

• Regulated equipment conditions that could reasonably cause an incident if not corrected
  • Conditions are not under management by the duty holder as part of maintenance
• Regulated passenger ropeway work being completed by persons not qualified for the work
• Unpermitted work or operations

Nav Chahal
Acting Provincial Safety Manager
Passenger Ropeways

Jeff Coleman
Provincial Safety Manager
Incident Investigations

References:
Safety Standards Act
Electrical Safety Regulation
Elevating Devices Safety Regulation
Gas Safety Regulation
Power Engineers, Boiler, Pressure Vessel & Refrigeration Safety Regulation
Safety Standards General Regulation