Clear answers over a death at the Squamish Terminals Monday (Aug. 18) may be slow in coming since the ship involved has left port. The Norwegian freighter Star Java is now back in open waters, but questions remain over an apparent miscommunication that lead to the death of one of its crew members and, more precisely, how to prevent such an incident from happening again."The ship has left, so we have to wait and we are obtaining further information from the company," said Transport Canada spokesperson Jillian Glover. "As well as working with the RCMP." Just before 3 p.m. Monday, the Star Java's crew members were stowing heavy machinery in preparation for departure in two hours. A 58-year-old Filipino member was on a gantry approximately 50 feet off the deck assisting by radio with the storage of a crane used for loading and unloading, which was operated from a nearby tower. No one is quite sure what happened next."Somehow there was miscommunication and as a result, this male was injured," said RCMP Cpl. Dave Ritchie. The man, whose identity is still being withheld pending notification of kin, was crushed by the crane, sustaining severe injury. A Terminals first aid attendant initially attempted to treat the man. RCMP, BC Ambulance and Fire Rescue arrived shortly in response to the call for assistance that went out at 3:05 p.m."We had to set up a high angle rope rescue system to bring him down from up top onto the ship's deck," said firefighter Bob Fulton.A flight paramedic attended to the man for "a long time," said Fulton. He was pronounced dead at the scene.It's now up to investigators to determine the exact cause of the industrial accident."Just in reading the file, they've determined that they did have a radio procedure in place, but somehow that broke down," said Ritchie. "That's what we're investigating with the coroner... seeing what was done, or what could've been done, or should've been done to prevent anything, and that's what eventually will come out of it with the Coroner's Service and Transport Canada." Glover said the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) typically investigates such incidences."They [TSB] typically go out and investigate and we will work with them and once they determine how it happened, if there's any implications for our regulations, than yes, we would respond in that manner," said Glover. However, according to and RMCP news release Transport Canada and BC Coroner Service are taking the lead. Glover confirmed the statement."Transport Canada is following up on the accident to obtain further details, and the TSB is not investigating."Calls the TSB were not returned by press time.
