It happened to me: My child died in a workplace incident

“I anxiously watched out the window for our car to drive into the laneway and prayed no police car would show up. Besides, those things only happen in the movies. But the unthinkable happened – at 8 pm a police car parked across from our house. They rang the doorbell and told us Jeremy had been killed on the job.” 

Elisa Kilbourne’s son Jeremy Bowley was killed at his summer job when he was 21. This is her story. 

Jeremy was one of those kids whose smile would light up the room, and everyone seemed to gravitate to him. He did very well in school. Entering his fourth year of a criminology program at university, he wanted to go into law enforcement. He loved the outdoors, and he loved sports. My brother would take Jeremy with his family up to Killarney, and he loved the campfires and eating s’mores and all of that good stuff. He got into baseball, and he became a really good pitcher. He was a good kid, and I’m proud of everything that he accomplished during his short few years.

In the spring of 2013, he started working for a tent rental and party rental organization. There was a team of six of them that would be putting up tents, setting up table chairs, and then cleaning all this stuff up and putting it away until the next use. I didn’t have any big concerns. I mean, my biggest concern was heat exhaustion, and I knew that they were going to be using the big sledgehammer to drill spikes down into the ground. And blisters, you know, that kind of thing. I assumed that they did all the necessary training, but that obviously was not the case.

What happened is the six-person crew had arrived late at the country home to install the large event tent for a wedding that weekend. The bride indicated where the tent was to be placed, and the boys unloaded the vans and started installing it. (It was later confirmed there had been no safety training, no supervisor present or inspection of the worksite.) The tent was about two-thirds erected when the pole they were lifting with a trolley mechanism from underneath the tent canopy made contact with an overhead hydro line. Of the five young men who sustained electrical shock, one had minor injuries, two were seriously injured, and one was critically injured. Jeremy was fatally electrocuted. 

What do I want the parents of young people and young workers themselves to know?

• Safety practices should start long before your child enters a job position. It needs to start at home, and this carries over into the workplace. This means parents and caregivers exercise safe practices around the home and talk about what good or not good activities happen at work. How did they approach speaking up?
• Ask your child what they believe their worker rights are. I honestly did not realize that there were these three specific occupational health and safety rights that protect workers on the job: the right to know about hazards, the right to participate and contribute, and the right to refuse unsafe work. It’s important to discuss what each of these rights look like. You can find helpful details through Workplace Safety & Prevention Services (WSPS) and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS).
• Ask your child what they learned at school about workplace safety. Does the school or class need a safety message delivered to the students? WSPS can offer a workshop, or a speaker from Threads of Life can share their personal story. Certainly, one of the best ways that you can make safety matter is by making it personal and relatable. 
• I work in an environment where safety is at the forefront, and I assumed this was the norm. Please don’t assume that all workplaces are equal when it comes to training, or how the business views, actions or follows compliance surrounding the safety of their employees.
• When they go in for the interview, ask your child to look around and note any concerns. For example, does the equipment seem to be taken care of or does it seem to be falling apart? Because if they don't take care of their equipment, there’s a really good chance they’re not taking care of their staff.
• Is there any personal protective equipment (PPE) that is required, and does it need to be purchased, or is it provided? Questions your child can ask at the interview are, “What is your safety motto?” and “What does your safety training look like for this position?”
• Ask your child what their training/orientation involved on their first day. Will there be further training? Did everyone take the training seriously, or disregard the importance? Ask more in-depth questions, rather than being ok with the one-second answer. Ask if they feel uncomfortable with anything so far, and offer to help them come up with a way to talk with their supervisor so they can proactively ask for more training. Follow up with your child a few days later.
• Encourage your child to gather information on the internet about common hazards for this type of work. Discuss a plan for your child to ask more questions if needed. Encouraging them and empowering them so that they know it’s okay to ask those questions, and it is really important.
• Trust your gut instincts. For your child, remind them that if something doesn’t feel right, stop. Assess the environment, ask questions, and rectify safety measures before proceeding. Would my mom or dad agree this is safe? As a parent, if you hear your child being disgruntled with work, is it an actual safety concern? If yes, then step in, ask questions, remind your child about worker rights, and how they can approach their supervisor. If the employer refuses to instill or follow safety measures, then remember, there is absolutely NO paycheque that is worth your child’s well-being…absolutely NONE!
• If they don’t want to listen to you as a parent, is there someone else, like a relative or family friend, that your child confides in? They may be able to get the message across.
• As much as we all think our children are the greatest thing, they’re not perfect, and they’re not invincible. The sooner we realize that as parents, the greater help we’re going to be with helping to protect them while letting them still grow and nurture into the people that they’ll become.