The death of 51-year-old Merrill "Spooner" Dixon in a logging crew boat crash last March won't be in vain, said his relatives and friends who attended last week's fact-finding inquest into his death.
"Everybody got to tell their tale, and I think this will actually bring the community together," said Sechelt Indian Band (SIB) councillor Jordan Louie of the week-long inquest held at the Sechelt provincial courthouse. "This helped stop the rumours and was a positive thing in the end."
Presiding coroner Tom Pawlowski ruled Dixon's death was accidental, caused by the sudden impact with the shoreline that resulted in a "severed brain stem dislocation." The crash, which occurred near Deserted Bay in Jervis Inlet just before midnight on March 21, 2007, took place during a dark, windy night with terrible visibility due to heavy snowfall. The crash also resulted in serious injuries to Danny Paul and Wayne Joe, both of whom testified at the inquest, where the jury and public learned alcohol, speed and lack of safety equipment training all played a role in the Tsuadi Forest Products crew boat smashing into the rocks.
Throughout the week, Pawlowski instructed the seven-member jury to reserve jumping to conclusions until all witnesses were heard. In the end, the jury of seven local men with expertise in marine navigation and commercial boating came up with eight recommendations from the inquest.
One was for Transport Canada to work to improve communications in coastal inlets and to require all commercial vessels to be equipped with an electronic position indicating radio beacon. The jury gave three recommendations to WorkSafe B.C., asking the board to ensure forest operators comply with Transport Canada's small vessel operator proficiency certificate and to ensure employers train their employees who use VHF radios through Transport Canada's restricted operator certificate. Problems with VHF communications hampered the efforts to guide the boat back to the logging camp during the night of the crash.
During the inquest, Tsuadi owner Aaron Joe said he's implemented some of these training courses for his employees in the wake of the deadly crash. The jury also asked the board to ensure forest licence holders take a larger role in the safety of contractors operating on their land and facilities, by suggesting licence holders make sure their contractors are properly trained and licensed if operating commercial vessels for work or crew transport.
The B.C. Forest Safety Council will be asked to ensure formal training for all commercial boat operators, as per Transport Canada regulations, and to ensure that crew transportation, on land or in the water, be included in audits for the council's Safety Accord Forestry Enterprise (SAFE) companies program. Tsuadi is registered to become a SAFE certified company, but as of July 2008 had not achieved the certification. Throughout B.C., only 850 companies have that designation, and Louie said the Band's resource management department is currently applying to become SAFE certified.
The recommendations are cold comfort to Doug Dixon, Merrill's brother. While he's glad to see moves towards mandatory certification for vessel operators, he noted: "All the recommendations won't bring my brother back."
"[The crew] should've just listened to Danny [Paul] and followed the shoreline back," he said.
During the inquest, all three surviving crew members recall Paul, who was then recovering from near-hypothermia after falling into the water, telling them to use the shoreline to navigate their way back to camp.
Dixon also said he was a little surprised to see no recommendation on the use of global positioning system devices, a navigation tool the men had attempted to use that night.
In light of the fact Tsuadi employs mainly members of the SIB, the jury recommended the Band put out a bulletin advertising the training courses and funding available for those who enroll in the courses. Louie said the recommendation comes as a surprise, since he said the Band is already advertising these courses. To him, boat operator training is a more useful recommendation.
"If [the crew] had some of the recommended training or the small vessel operator card, this [crash] might not have happened," he said, adding he hopes the training can be renewed as often as needed. "A four-day training session is good, but you have to keep up with it."
The recommendations will be forwarded to B.C.'s chief coroner, who will distribute them to the appropriate agency. In 2006, the most recent year for which the coroner's service has issued an annual report, there were 68 jury recommendations directed to agencies or individuals. That year, the coroner's service had a 77 per cent response rate to action-focused recommendations.
