BC is home to some of the world’s best alpine facilities. Millions of BC residents and tourists frequent these facilities every year to enjoy skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, hiking, and alpine vistas. An integral part of this experience is exciting and safe transportation on passenger ropeways.
Even though significant advancements have been made in safety, every year, BC experiences a number of passenger ropeway incidents, where passengers are injured while failing to load or unload correctly from the ropeway, and electrical failures require the use of evacuation drives or manual evacuations of the ropeway, or when workers were exposed to moving, rotating equipment while conducting maintenance tasks. In many situations these can be avoidable with effective incident/hazard reporting and investigation.
When and How to Report an Incident to Technical Safety BC
All incidents and hazards are to be reported to Technical Safety BC immediately or as soon as practicable. Hazards are required to be prevented or immediately corrected by duty holders that are responsible for the regulated product, work or operation.
Incidents and hazards can be reported to Technical Safety BC 24 hours a day, seven days a week through our website reporting portal or by calling 1 866 566 7233. For emergency assistance call 911 or your local police or fire department directly.
If you have witnessed unsafe working conditions, please contact WorkSafeBC.
Duty to Preserve Incident Site for Investigation
A person must not remove, disturb or interfere with anything in, on or about the place where the incident occurred except as necessary to rescue a person, prevent injury or to protect property unless directed by a safety officer or safety manager.
Technical Safety BC will respond within 24 hours of the next regular business day following the report of an incident if more information is required or an investigation is planned to occur.
Passenger ropeways safety officers assess new installations as well as operating equipment. These physical assessments provide Technical Safety BC and its stakeholders with an understanding of strengths and weaknesses within the safety system and inform priorities for prevention, assessment and audit efforts. During each physical assessment of regulated work, safety officers identify hazards found, as well as work that does not comply with the Safety Standards Act, Elevating Devices Safety Regulation, and the CSA Z98 Safety Standard for Passenger Ropeways and Conveyors.
Learn more about incident and hazard reporting.
