New details have emerged about the collapse of a transmission tower that killed two men near Come By Chance four years ago.
Thirty-four-year-old Jared Moffatt of Saskatchewan and 31-year-old Tim McLean of Ontario were working on the tower 75 feet above the ground when the whole works came crashing down on June 19, 2017. It was just after noon on a Monday, and the men were on day 27 of their 28-day work schedule.
(Jared Moffat (Left) and Tim McLean (Right) were killed in tragic industrial accident on the transmission line near Come by Chance.)
The tower had been erected a few days earlier and they were attaching guy wires to keep it anchored. Problem is, one of the wires was too short, but instead of returning the tower to an assembly yard to fix it, they went ahead with a temporary connection. While that’s not unusual, it did require McLean and Moffatt to climb the tower to switch out the temporary line with a permanent one.
It was later found that all four guy wires had to be replaced. However, tragedy struck when a temporary line was disconnected by the men on the tower before the new one was anchored to the ground. Why that happened remains a mystery, with court documents noting the only two people who would know died at the scene.
Their employer, Forbes Brothers, has since pleaded guilty to several safety-related charges, as has the supervisor on-site that day, Darren Brookes.
The company was fined $125,000 while Brookes must pay $3,000 and go through more training.
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, which hired Forbes to connect the lines to Bay D’Espoir, was also charged in the case and will be in court in August.
