Alarming tool toss caught on Calgary video

Alberta officials are investigating a disturbing online video that appears to show a Calgary construction worker tossing a tool to a colleague while perched on scaffolding high above street level.

The video, which has since been removed from YouTube, was apparently shot on the 29th storey of a condo development in October, weeks after a three-year-old girl was struck and killed by unsecured construction debris that was blown from another construction site.

"You still recording?" asks a worker, wearing blue coveralls and a hard hat, to his colleague who is recording above him.

"I sure am," says the man behind the camera.

"Well, you gotta do something entertaining," says the worker.

'Handing [materials] or throwing them across a gap where there doesn't appear to have been any sort of netting below to catch it would be a violation of the regulations.' Chris Chodan, Alberta Employment and Immigration

The man shooting the video can be heard narrating as his colleague passes a metal rod to a crewmate in another section.

Then at about a minute and 40 seconds into the video, the worker tosses a metal clamp across the open air to the same co-worker.

"WHOA!" yells the man recording. "People's lives are in danger with Skyway on top of rooftops."

A spokesman for Skyway Canada told CBC News the company which provides scaffolding equipment for construction sites is investigating.

Chris Chodan, a spokesman with Alberta Employment and Immigration, said the province is also probing the video.

"The materials at a high-rise worksite are supposed to be secured so they can't fall on someone below them," he said Thursday.

"Clearly handing them or throwing them across a gap where there doesn't appear to have been any sort of netting below to catch it would be a violation of the regulations."

Safety guidelines being developed

In August, high winds blew a piece of corrugated metal from the top of an 18-storey building under construction downtown, killing Michelle Krsek.

The developer and builders of the highrise have been charged with violating the Alberta Safety Codes Act.

Workplace inspectors conducted a blitz of 23 construction sites in Calgary last fall after Krsek's death, finding some minor violations.

But there have been other incidents, including a wrench falling off the 45th storey of the Bow building in May and crashing through a window of police headquarters.

That showed the need to better educate workers on site safety, said Michael Brown, associate vice-president with developer Matthews Southwest.

"It's crucial for us that we have a safe worksite, and as in that case and in any case, we take it, we look at it, we review it, and we make the adjustments to prevent it from ever happening again," he said Thursday.

The association that represents construction companies is expected to present best safety practices it developed for highrise sites to the city next week.