Workplace Challenges
Father puts a face on safety at workJim Sandford's message is painful, passionate and directed at anyone who feels unsure about their workplace safety. PATRICK MALONEY |
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 [ 2007-04-23 ] |
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Two years after his 30-year-old son, Jim Jr., died in a fall while fixing a London elevator, Sandford is the face of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board's annual day of mourning for at-work fatalities this Saturday.
"I just feel I need to do something positive," said Sandford, who also appears on the dramatic posters, which are being distributed provincewide.
"My bottom-line message is that I want everyone in the workplace to know that they have a right to feel safe and be safe."
Sandford will make his first-ever speech about his son's death during a Friday memorial at WSIB's Toronto headquarters.
It was March 29, 2005 when Sandford -- himself a long-time veteran of the elevator industry -- received a call from his son, who was working with Schindler Elevator Corp. and who was nervous about the state of the lift he was retrofitting.
Within minutes of that call, Sandford received a second call.
"It wouldn't be five minutes later after we (he and his son) hung up that (Schindler's) office called and said we better get to the hospital."
The walls of the elevator at 457 Richmond St. had been removed while Jim Jr. worked on it.
When the elevator abruptly rocketed upward, he tried to jump onto a landing but instead fell 13 metres to his death. He was taken off life support a day later, his eyes, skin and heart valves donated to others.
The company was fined $300,000 by Ontario's Ministry of Labour.
Described as a kid at heart, Jim Jr. left behind a son, who is now four, and a loving partner. The Sandfords are still close with their grandson and daughter-in-law.
Jim Sr., a 54-year-old Iona Station resident, struggles to talk about his son. While it's still a wide-open wound, he wants the chance to help other families avoid the pain he endures daily.
"People tell us it will get better, it will go away. And I'm telling you, they don't know. We think about Jim every day," he said.
The WSIB and the support group Threads of Life were "wonderful" to his family, Sandford said.
His willingness to speak out about something so painful is greatly appreciated, said Steve Mahoney, chairperson of the WSIB.
"He is representative of so many families who have lost a loved one," Mahoney said in an e-mail. "And we are pleased to be able to honour them on this day."
More than 100 people died due to workplace injuries in Ontario last year, according to WSIB statistics.
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