David Vinnicombe's family is calling for a coroner's inquest in a statement made in response to the coroner's report regarding his death.
Vinnicome, a 19-year-old Australian man employed by Allen Services and Contracting Ltd., was killed while on the job at a roadway construction project just outside of Inuvik in late June of 2016.
Vinnicombe was operating a vibrating roller packer when the heavy piece of machinery rolled over. Vinnicombe, who wasn't wearing a seat belt, was pinned under the unit and died after sustaining "multiple blunt injuries," including a fracture to his skull. His death was classified as accidental.
In February 2018, Allen Services & Contracting Ltd. was sentenced to a fine of $100,000 for failing to ensure work was sufficiently and competently supervised.
"Due to various apparent inadequacies, we are forced to highlight the importance of a coroner's inquest to bring to light all of the 'true' root causes of David's preventable accident including the not-fit-for-purpose nature of the open-cabin machine David was operating at the time of his death," reads the statement from Robbie and Renee Vinnicombe, David's parents.
"It should not be forgotten that David's preventable workplace death was the only workplace death in the NWT in 2016. Surely that reason alone cries out for an inquest."
Their statement also calls for tighter controls to be enforced.
"Old and antiquated open-cabin machinery employed in a predominantly sub-zero environment have no place on a multi-million dollar, taxpayer-funded, federal government road project in the NWT," the statement reads. "Tighter controls must be enforced … For the greater good of all, including our dearly beloved David, the Honourable Louis Sebert and Chief Coroner Menard owe it to our children and to the workplace at large to hold an inquest into David's preventable death forthwith."
The report from the Office of the Chief Coroner of the Northwest Territories ruled an inquest would not be necessary.
The report ruled his death as accidental and outlined a number of factors that contributed to his death, including not having received "in-depth" training for the machine he was operating.
The report also made three recommendations to the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission (WSCC) and its safety partners, which include the NWT Federation of Labour, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Construction Association and the Northern Safety Association.
The coroner's first recommendation is to develop a public education campaign between safety partners "to promote the Powered Mobile Equipment Code of Practice, with emphasis on ensuring proactive safety cultures in the workplace and explaining how employers can implement programs to assess and properly document worker qualifications and competencies."
The second recommendation encourages employers, in coordination with safety partners, to conduct third-party audits of their safety programs.
The final recommendation was made to WSCC "to commission a study to review the efficacy of the use of both safety equipment and communication devices designed to lessen the chance of injury or death and increase the survivability of the operators of heavy equipment in the event of a collision or roll-over."
The final recommendation went on to suggest a feasibility study of built-in inclinometer gauges with audible and visual alerts and two-way radios.
A March 28 press release from WSCC said it is reviewing the coroner's recommendations to determine what course of action the organization will take moving forward.