Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 20/01) - The investigation continues in attempts to find what led to the deaths of two workers at the Diavik diamond mine site Tuesday evening.

Now under construction, the $1-billion Diavik diamond mine was the site of a tragic accident Tuesday that claimed the lives of two steelworkers from Edmonton. - Dave Sullivan/NNSL photo

Two steelworkers fell to their deaths when the elevated platform they were working on tipped over.

Gerhard Bender, 33, and Gregory Wheeler, 27, were in the basket of a manlift about 18 metres up when the mobile lift tipped over backwards.

Their safety harnesses were locked to the rail around the platform, said chief coroner Percy Kinney.

They had no chance to free themselves from the machine as it fell over.

Bender and Wheeler were among 1,000 people involved in construction of the Diavik diamond mine, located 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife. Both were residents of Edmonton. Wheeler is originally from Corner Brook, Nfld. They arrived at the mine for the first time five days before the accident.

"He was a fun-loving guy, he loved all his nieces and nephews," said Bender's sister-in-law, Michele Lambkin.

The accident occurred at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. Emergency response crews at the site were unable to revive the two.

The official cause of death for both was massive head injuries, said Kinney. He and deputy coroner Cathy Menard examined the bodies at Stanton hospital Wednesday afternoon.

The employees of subcontractor Supreme Steel Ltd. of Edmonton were working on cladding on a 30-metre high wall of the mill building.

The coroner's office, Workers' Compensation Board and RCMP are still investigating the accident.

"The thing we don't know is why this thing toppled over," said Kinney.

The rubber-tired machine is controlled from the platform the men were on. The mobile scaffold is equipped with sensors that are supposed to override the controls when it encounters uneven ground. Kinney said it was on flat dry ground when it tipped.

"It's something that probably should never have happened," said Lambkin.

"His nephew is also an ironworker and he said it's supposed to be impossible for those machines to fall backwards. And that's what happened."

A WCB official was at the site conducting a routine safety inspection at the time the accident occurred.

The inspector remained at the site to investigate the accident. The WCB would not allow him or his supervisor to speak to media.

The accident occurred a day after Diavik issued an update that noted it had recently achieved a safety milestone of over half a million man hours worked without a lost-time accident.

In a press release issued late Wednesday, Diavik stated that out of respect for the deceased, their families and co-workers, steel erection and cladding activity at the mine site had been temporarily suspended.

Senior management and counselling professionals were sent to the site to offer support to co-workers, the company stated.