4 —- North Shore News — Weonesday, June 21, 2000 Five survivors remember fatet From page \ years ago. Patrick Glendinning stood holding Colin's six-year-old grandson. His father, the 72- year-old survivor of Western Canada’s worst bridge disaster, was there beside them along with four of his former co- workers, In what has become an annual tradition, the surviving five lined up behind a bagpiper for the short march from the southeast end of the bridge deck to the memorial plaque that commemorates the official renaming of the bridge in 1996. For everyone present who recalled that hot June day in 1958 — when, at precisely 3:40 p.m., one of the steel bridge spans buckled and col- lapsed, carrying another span down with it — the day evoked different’ memories, different . feelings. For Colin Glendinning, it’s a get-together with a lot of good friends. He chuckled, recalling the plummet, as he fell off the bridge span back- wards. “You know what I was thinking? ‘Oh God, I wish I had a parachute’? — I really did,” he said. : Jim English, then a job "superintendent, joked that was the day he learned to swim. - But he had only one thought . during his free-fall’ into the inlet. “All the way down I kept saying, ‘It can’t happen, these bridges don’t, fall down.’ We .. had such faith in the enginecr- ; be that it. (seemed) i impossi- le . Gary Poirier, then an 18- yea -old : junior. apprentice, remembered the heat. “It was On, Lube & ‘Filter: 21‘ pt: Safety check, 15 minutes probably the hottest day of the year, a day vou want to go swimming,” he recalled. “(1) was on the canwalk, walking back towards the ladder that goes to the top part of the bridge, and that’s where she collapsed; on the top part of the ladder.” Pointer was sure he was going to dic, but he was res- cued by a pair of fisherman and released trom hospital that night, with a torn knee liga- ment. Three months later, he returned to work, becoming 2 an on the same an ironworker, always an ironworker,” he shrugged. He was the only one of the four apprentices up there that day, who returned to work afterwards. Two were killed. The third had a leg amputated. Following the tragedy. Poiricr maintained a vigil at the bridge every June 17, until he convinced his union local to make it a traditional event. “Life's gotta go on,” Poirier rationalized, “but we still gotta remember.” - But 49-year-old Patrick Glendinning: remembers it all too well, “We didn’t know for three or four days if (dad) was alive or where he was... there were no identities, they didn’t really have the names and dad ‘was unconscious.” When Colin Glendinning hit the water, the impact black-, ened one of his lungs, tore off his car and broke his leg. He touched the bottom of the inlet before emerging to the surface, Glendinning was in the water for 40 minutes, with the dead body of one.of his friends floating face down in FAST!” Inctudes up to 5 lites of 10w30 Unocal Cit 1362: ‘Marine Drive 980-9115. Sun, 9:00arn-5:00pm . Expires June 28/2000 _ SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 2000 10:00am-12:00 noon at the NEW HOLIDAY an: (old Coach House) Old Lillooet Road h Vancouver. front of him, a gaping hole in his head. “Ll was coughing up blood,” he said, “Youre doing 120 m.p.h. when you hit and lying flat in the water — it’s hard.” Yet, like most of the hardy “high steel” workers, Gi lendinning, who was earning $3.85 an hour, returned to fin: ish the bridge afte had recuperated. “That was scary,” he said, “because you took down a piece of steel and tore it ali down, but carrying it down was far more dangerous than putting it up... we had to be fast on our feet. Glendinning was _ finally sersuaded to quit bridge build- ing when, in a separate ac dent, he managed to break his other leg at exactly the same time, one year later to the day. By coincidence, he was taken both times to Vancouver General Hospital, where he was reccived by the same nurse and had his leg plastered by the same doctor. “My mother said, ‘You're really wearing on me here, Colin,” Patrick Glendinning recalled. “She just worked on him and he had to find anoth- er job, but he’s always had his heart in iron working.” Patrick Glendinning still harbours feelings of resent- ment for Dominion Bridge, the bridge building company he feels is to blame for the tragedy. “I wish I could tell you there was a lesson learned,” he said, “but I don’t think there is.” In a subsequent Royal Commission inquiry, — the bridge collapse was attributed to human error on the part of one of the enginecrs who died che scene. A temporary arm, holding the fifth anchor span, : ed too light to bear younger Glendinning disagrees, howzver. “They chintzed out on a lot of stuff,” he said. “I think the engineer called for a certain grade of steel and I don’t think they put it in. Pm just guessing, like everyone else, but I don’t think it was ever really looked into to find out exactly what the problems were.” Although the issue was highly charged at the time, none of the men present Saturday felt bitter or angry, and most of them were cager to return to work. “It was just a litte engi- neering mistake,” said North Vancouver resident = Joe Mazarro, 2 retired ironworker who showed up to pay his respects. “The calculations were wrong, that’s all.” Mazarro remembered how, back in 1958, a company superintendent tock him for a three-hour tour of the half constructed bridge, to impress him with how safe it was. “The next week it fell down,” he said. Kevin McGrath, 2 business agent for the ironworker’s union, said the theme of the day was to honour the memo- ry of the ironworkers killed and cir familics suffering, but was extended as well, to all working people who are killed or Visit our wapsite at - S www.brightest-idea.com injured on the job. He refused to draw any comparisons between the 1958 tragedy and present day safety conditions for workers upgrad- ing the Lions Gate Bridge. McGrath acknowled “some real close shaves... with traffic on the bridge,” but he said, “Any work being done on a bridge is always a dangerous ul day task. People she about chat when they across these bridge: For people su idendinning, the dang his w hole fife is sall iron work- ing.” explained his son Parrick. “Even with ail the crap he went through, he still loves it. It's in his blood.” “Where Our Customers Send Their Friends." FABULOUS BUYS 100% Wool 5 colors Nylon sisal 9 colors $2.66 sq.ft. $2.66 sq.ft. Olefin Berber 9 colors. $1.44 sq.ft. 65oz. nylon siainmaster $3.33 sqft. “West Vancouver does not mean high prices." : 507-15th Street, = West Vancouver 2nd Location: a Whistler Design Shoppe Function Junction, ©... : Whistler (604) 932-5111.