Investigation begins in Ottawa construction worker death
Posted May 5, 2011 10:10:52 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Ministry of Labour is trying to find out exactly what caused the death of a construction worker in Sandy Hill, Wednesday.
Ben Long, 48, from Newfoundland died from his injuries when a piece of concrete slab collapsed on him.
Long and another contractor were standing on the aged concrete slab porch when it broke and sent the pair crashing into a 10-foot deep cellar with the slab tumbling after them.
They were trapped, one man rescued fairly quickly, but it took firefighters 45 minutes to free Long, using hydraulic jacks to lift the large piece of concrete off him.
“At that time he did not have a pulse and he was not breathing,” said Jean Hamel, of Ottawa Paramedics Service. “He had major chest injuries.”
The man was pronounced dead from his injuries.
Long’s boss, Abe Hoskins, said he knew him from childhood as they both grew up in the same Newfoundland town.
They had worked together for 25 years, Hoskins said Long was the type of worker every boss dreams of having: reliable, good and easy to get along with. Long was married with no children.
