40 years since Vancouver Bentall Centre tragedy sparked construction safety changes

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Thursday marks 40 years since the Bentall Centre IV tragedy when four carpenters fell to their deaths.

It was Vancouver’s deadliest workplace accident since the collapse of the Second Narrows Bridge in 1958.

Labour historian Rod Mickleburgh says people in building trades gather every year in the shadow of the Bentall building to mourn the lives lost.

“I remember the shock and the horror that just swept the city when news of this tragedy happened,” he tells NEWS 1130. “You can’t imagine anything worse than four workers falling 36 floors to this terrible death on the concrete plaza below.”

He says even today when he walks by, he thinks of the carpenters who thought they were safe doing their job on the fly-form.

“And then that ghastly moment when it tipped over.”

However, he says it is one of the tragedies that led to change.

NEWS 1130 BOOKSHELF: On the Line: an illustrated history of BC’s labour movement

Mickleburgh explains the incident sparked a major, province-wide inquiry by the Social Credit government of the day into the safety of the construction industry.

A series of recommendations came out of it.

“Since then, and these were new recommendations, they were implemented immediately in terms of fly-form safety and there hasn’t been an accident since,” he says.

“It really tightened up safety in the construction industry that still continues to kill people, but things are a lot better than they were and a lot of the changes were a direct result from this terrible tragedy.”

He adds other changes included more workplace inspections. However, unfortunately, four decades later, the construction sector continues to have more preventable workplace deaths than any other industry in the province.

Mickleburgh wrote about the tragedy and its rippling effect in his book, “On the Line: A History of the British Columbia Labour Movement.”

“No one who remembers it has forgotten,” he says.