136 E VOICE OF NORTH A

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GRAND STYLE
B.C. Place hosts
the Spring Home
and Garden Show.

THE MUSIC MAN

North Vancouver actor
Mark Hopkins stars
in his dream gig.

Am Peciee PR scr cea ee! Wis
Nt craTe Mibsrad Ses poihees z FPoviatined 10' “ey RSp
pe Gains pital H Pere ees a a

February 16, 1994 72 pages Office, Editorial 985-2131 Display Advertising 980-0511

$825,000 awarded to family of
man killed in Hwy 99 rockfall

A DEADLY rockfall two
years ago on the Squamish
Sea To Sky Highway has
resulted in a $825,000 court
award for the family of a
Squamish man killed at
Porteatu Bluffs.

1991, it was loose enough to scale
in F988,

Porteau Bluffs. where the natur-
al mountainside was blasted away
during the original construction of
the Squamish Highway, is a notori-
ous rock fall site.

On Dec. 8. 1987, fess than four
years before the fatal accident, a
sive rock slide from the bluffs

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Thieves hit library

By Brent Mudry ma

Cantributing Writer

In a decision released Monday
in Vancouver. B.C. Supreme Court
Mr. Justice Kenneth James Smith
found the provincial highways
department negligent in failing to
ensure that adequate rock-scaling
had been performed on the high-
wity’s cliff face.

Robert Norman Holt was dri-
ving home from a family reunion
on the highway on Sept. 3. 1991.
when a large rock crashed through
his windshield,

The rock fractured Holt's skull.
He died soon after.

New roc! ating had been
scheduled to start at the site on the
day of the accident.

In a separate irony, Ministry: of
Transportation and Highways
(MOTH) contract sealers were
scheduled to work on the site at the
time of the recent 10-day negli-
gence tink which ended Sept. 23 in
Vancouver.

John Laxton, the Hott family
lawyer. claimed the killer ¢
should have been sealed three years
earlier, bur the Crown denied all
wlegations of negligence.

The rock faee. which is near
Porteau Cove. approximately 24,5
kin (15.2 miles) north of Horseshoe
Bay. 20 haa C124 miles) south of
Squamish, wits heavily Fractured
and cracked.as shown in cour-filed
photographs taken ii JUSS,

“The rock which fell and struck
Mr. Holt should have been scaled
during the work done under the
Cerka contract.” Justice Smith
ruled.

The court heard conflicting
dence on whether MoTH officials
or supervisors with Cerka Contract
ominagement ol Langley. the rock-
seate subcontractor, ardered tack-
scaling to be paomaturely complet
ed in 98s,

But, stued the judge. “Whether
the Cerka scalers neglecied to scale
the rocks in question, or whether
they were dintructed not to, is of ne
CORSCQUCHEE,

“Has tay conclusion that they
did not attempt to scabs the rock

blocked the highway.

One month later, the site was
designated a Priority | area by a
ministry rockwork technician.
meaning the bluff had “very high
probability of failure with attendant
serious consequences.”

Cerka. the low bidder, was hired
to remove an estimated 300 eubie
metres of rack and overburden
from the area in which the Holt
death rock fell from,

The job was given a 600 man-
hour work estimate.

Cerka completed the tvo-
month, 362-hour job on Dec, 22.
1988, billing SE E462.

The Highways Ministry was sat-
isfied, and downgraded the site to
Priority 3. but an internal memo
noted “further remedial work is
required at the Porteau Bluffs.”

Evidence showed that the site
was an accident waiting to happen
for months, if not years, before the
fatal rack fall.

Additional rock stabilization
was contemplated at Porteay Bluffs
in early 1991, when the provincial
government considered building a
new ferry terminal on Howe Sound.

On Sune 5, 199). three months
before the Holt rockfall, Highways
Ministry staff made a helicopter
inspecdion of the site afer a coud:
level inspection was conducted two
days cartier,

The bluff was further examined
by chinbers and another helicopter
thy-by,

With no urgent need established,
the rescaling was set to start an
Sept. 3. 1990, but Holt was kilfed
hours betore the work began,

Sean Ellis, scaling supervisor
with B.A.T. Construction, which
wan the second cantrich: was critt-
calof the state in whieh the Holt
source area had been left following
Cerka's 1998 work,

But Ellis readily conceded that
he knew the Cer s
confident in their competence and
that he would have accepted their
word if they said they had scaled
the bluff,

“ta the face of that evidence | do

THERE IS no telling what will happen to the library card belonging to the culprit who was
recently responsible for the illegal take-out of computer equipment at North Vancouver
City’s public library. Library staffer Lestie Wiedmann shows the shell of a CD ROM tower
stripped during the theft. See story on page 5.

which fell and struck Mr. Holt”
Dr. Chuck Brawner of UBC, a
rockfall expert. testified with YO%
to OS certainty that if the Holt
rock was Joose enough to fall in

not Hightly come to the conclusion
(hat Cerka employees failed to
scale the rock which Phave con-
cluded fell from the overburden and
struck Mr. Hott,” the judge noted.

CHING