Mother of worker who died calls for more site inspections

The mother of a worker who died last week on the job is calling for more labour inspectors and regular workplace inspections.

Linda McInnis's oldest son, Shaun Patrick McInnis, died last week after falling four storeys from a roof he was working on.

"It was just the most horrible thing I could imagine happening and my beautiful boy was gone," she said.

The 47-year-old father of three was pronounced dead at hospital.

McInnis was wearing a safety harness at the time of his fall but the harness was not secured to an anchor point.

"Shaun was the safety officer on that job site. He would make sure that everybody else was tethered off, so I don't understand how he fell or why he wasn't tethered," said Linda McInnis.

McInnis's death marks the province's 12th workplace fatality this year. It is the second in the construction trade.

Nova Scotia'sDepartment of Labour and Advanced Education is investigating the circumstances around McInnis's death.

Linda McInnis said she believes there needs to be more workplace inspectors and an increase in the number of inspections.

"Shaun has been working here for three years, he's never seen a site inspector show up," she said.

"When you know that a site inspector could show up at any time during that day, you're a little more conscientious of making sure you have all of your equipment on properly and youre doing everything the right way."

But she said she wants to make it clear she's not assigning blame to anyone in her son's death, especially not Truss Worthy Framing, her son's employer.

"It's an accident and thats why they call it an accident and the only person responsible is Shaun and he would be the one to say that," she said.

The owner of Truss Worthy Framing has now had two employees die on the job in the last four years.