Part of Investigations

Worksite fatality investigation reports

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) publishes fatality investigation reports and annual summaries of investigated incidents.

Types of fatalities

Common types of fatal incidents investigated by Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) include:

  • falls
  • struck by objects
  • caught by objects
  • transportation incidents
  • exposure to harmful substances
  • fire and explosion

Motor vehicle accidents

If a reportable incident involving a motor vehicle occurs, and a worker under provincial jurisdiction is injured, OHS investigates. Depending on the circumstances, OHS involvement can range from a full investigation to follow-up inspections and compliance checks.

Occupational disease fatalities

Deaths due to occupational disease are reported by a physician, and included in provincial industry statistics.

Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB)

The Alberta WCB oversees the employer-funded insurance plan that pays injured or sick workers, when the injury or illness is work-related. Death benefits may also be paid from this insurance plan when a fatality is accepted as work-related by Alberta WCB.

WCB coverage is separate from OHS jurisdiction.

Examples:

  • A fatality occurs to a worker in a federally regulated industry on an Alberta work site. Although the worker may be covered by provincial WCB, the employer is under federal jurisdiction. This fatality would be investigated by federal OHS, not Alberta OHS.
  • A worker for an out-of-province company is fatally injured while temporarily working in Alberta. The incident may be investigated by OHS, but the fatality might be accepted under a different province’s compensation board.

Fatality investigation reports

OHS publishes these fatality investigation reports after investigations and all court proceedings, if any, are completed.

Any court proceedings resulting from work site fatalities must be completed before investigation reports are published.

Annual summaries of incidents investigated by OHS

Each summary report lists the workplace incident fatalities investigated by OHS during that year.

See the workplace incident fatalities investigated by year.

Disclaimer: In case of any inconsistency between this information and the OHS Act, Regulation or Code, the legislation will always prevail.

Contact

Connect with OHS:

Phone: 780-415-8690 (Edmonton)
Toll free: 1-866-415-8690 
TTY: 780-427-9999 (Edmonton)
TTY: 1-800-232-7215

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