Jury addresses 'fitness for duty' in recommendations at inquest into 78-year-old's death

Michael Hawkes hopes other families will learn a lesson from his father's tragic death.

"There are cracks in the system, and we fell through them," Hawkes saidThursday afternoon whilea coroner's jury deliberatedabout the circumstances surrounding his father's deathin 2017.

Donald Hawkes, 78, was run over by a tractor-trailer at a Fredericton-areaasphalt plant operated by Springhill Construction. He suffered several broken bones and internal injuries and died in hospital a week later.

Michael Hawkes said his father was showing signs of dementia, and although he may not have formally notified the company, he said his father was planning to retire the day of his accident or the day after.

At the end of the inquest in Saint John,after hearing from 14 witnesses and deliberating for two hours, the five jurorsruled that Hawkes's death was accidental. They made four recommendations:

• Mandate a program to assess fitness for duty for workers that would allow family, co-workers to refer an individual to be screened by a medical professional to determine whether they're "fit for duty."
• Ensureemployers provide "fit for duty" training for front-line supervisors.
• Install a bubble mirror at the batch plant where the incident occurredin order to eliminate blind spots fortruck drivers and pedestrians.
• Implement a "pre-startup safety inspection audit or assessment by a trained, competent person for industry and public service sites."

The jury heard that Hawkes was already on the ground when he was struck by the front of the tractor-trailer. He was dragged for a short distance and run over. The Fredericton resident hadfractures of hisarm, ribs, sternum, pelvis and ankle.

The presiding coroner added an additional recommendationto the jury's "that a process be put in place to require operators of commercial vehicles to complete a 360-degree inspection around their vehicle prior to moving to ensure a clear path. This should be required any time a vehicle has been parked unless it is unsafe to do so."

Family noticed signs of dementia

Michael Hawkes said his father's cognitive abilities had diminished in recent years and especially in his last year.

Hawkes said he informed his father not long before his death that he didn't want him driving his children around anymore. He told his father that he didn't think he should be driving at all.

He said he wasn't brutally honest with his father, but Hawkes saidwas "gunning for" his father's drivers licence. He hadalso becomemore insistent about his father retiring.

Hawkes said he wanted to go to his father's longtime employer and tell them "enough is enough."

The family was waiting for a referral for a geriatric specialist to help assess Donald Hawkes's cognitive problems.

"We tried to get ahead of it, but we ran out of time," Hawkes told the jury on Thursday.

Hawkes said he hopedthe jury would come up with recommendations to help families who are in a similar position with loved ones showing signs of dementia.

That, he said, will do more to prevent similar deaths in future than any changes at the work site.

Hawkes said his family was at a loss on where to turn for help. He said they had no idea how to get his father's licence taken away.

He said they are difficult conversations to have, "but people have to step up." He said there's an inherent danger in keeping quiet for fear of offending someone's ego or their sense of self worth.

He wondered if WorkSafe NB couldformalize the process for ensuring someone doesn't work beyond their capability, because "this is going to happen again."

The go-to fix-it guy

For decades, if you wanted to know how things worked at Springhill Construction, Donald Hawkes was the guy to ask.

He had worked for four generations of the Colter family at Springhill and its predecessor, Diamond Construction. He was in his 60th season with the company.

He was officially the company's electrician but was a jack of all trades and the go-to guy for fixing things.

Stephen Black, the company's vice-president of quarry operations, told the jury that a lot of the company's equipment had been custom-made by Hawkes.

Hawkes was a valuable employee and "an all-round good guy."

Black said Hawkes was still very capable but slowing down recently.

Hawkes was at the company's secondary asphalt plant on the morning he was run over. He died of his injuries a week later in Saint John.

Jason Veino, Springhill's safety administrator in 2017, said he knew that Hawkes was slowing down, but he told the jury that he didn't have any concerns about him.

He also said he didn't have any concerns about the way theplant was being operated. He said he knew "it's a tight area" around the hopperthat loaded asphalt into tractor trailers, but didn't identify any safety concerns.

"That plant's been there 50-some years and it hasn't changed much," said Veino.

It did change later on the day Hawkes was injured, when a set of steps was removed and replaced.

No one saw what happened to Hawkes, but he was observed inside a trailer near the hopper that acted as a control centre for the loading of asphalt. The next anyone saw him, he was lying on the ground near a set of steps from the trailer.

At the time of the accident, the steps led from the trailer straight out and into the path of passing trucks.

Drag marks on the ground indicated that Hawkes had been dragged from the foot of the steps asmuch as 4.5 metres.

Later that day, the steps were removed and rebuilt so the steps descended parallel to the building and not into the path of passing traffic.

Upon further inspection, the company changed the steps again a couple of weeks later to descend in the opposite direction and both sides of the dirt roadway are protected by concrete barriers, which provide pedestrians with a protected area on either side of the road.

The WorkSafeNB investigation

Michel Cyr, WorkSafeNB's lead investigator in Hawkes's case,took over the investigation when the Fredericton police turned the scene over to him at 2:06 p.m. the day of the incident.

He told the jury that measurements of the stairs revealed that each rung was a different height, and varied up to half an inch something that can throw off people expecting uniform height for each.

Investigators ordered the companyto fix the steps and the direction they faced.

Cyr said they also produced a photograph to illustrate the extent of blind spots forthe truck that ran over Hawkes.

He said a driver would not be able to see anything on the ground for 36 feet in front of the truck and at various distances to each side.

He said WorkSafeNB used that information and the picture that was produced to educate drivers about the dangers. He said it was distributed on social media and to trucking groups.

Cyr said he wasn't aware of any obligations under provincial workplace legislation that specifically dealswith cognitive problems. He said it's not an easy topic for employers to navigate, but theyhave a wide scope of responsibility to ensure the safety of workers.

Cyr said employees don't readily come forward with complaints or concerns about co-workers before an incident happens. In the course of his investigation, he heard that Hawkes's coworkers had a great deal of respect for him, but some did say they thought Hawkes should have retired.