PORT ALICE— A man has been killed while working at a logging site near Port Alice.
The BC Coroners Service has identified the man as Toby Lee Childs, aged 38, from Sooke. Childs was working as a faller for Lemare Lake Logging at Cleagh Creek, near Mahatta Camp, when the accident occurred on the morning of Thursday, Sept 13.
According to the BC Coroners Service report, Childs was felling trees on an uphill slope when something went wrong. He was found by co-workers and pronounced deceased at the scene.
WorkSafeBC dispached Serious Incident Investigators to the scene to prepare a report on the incident.
According to their preliminary findings, Childs was working with three co-workers when the accident occurred. He was hand-falling in an area with a large proportion of dead cedar when it appears that a branch broke off, fell, struck and fatally injured the faller.
WorkSafeBC's on-site team will continue to investigate the accident alongside the BC Coroners Service.
In its release, the Coroners Service confirmed that the family had been notified of Child's death, and the Service expressed its condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Childs.