Monday marked the 60th anniversary of the deadliest workplace disaster in Ottawa’s history. The Heron Road Bridge collapse saw nine people die, and 60 injured. On August 10, 1966, workers were pouring concrete on the eastern portion of the 70-metre span across the Rideau River when it collapsed. On Monday, families and workers gathered to mourn and remember in a ceremony outside the bridge, now called the Heron Road Workers Memorial Bridge in its memory. Guylaine Lamadeleine was young when her father Omer Lamadeleine was killed in the collapse and says laying a rose beneath his name on the memorial plaque was an important moment for her. “I miss him,” she said in an interview with CTV News Ottawa. Her father was among the nine who were killed that day, along with Leonard T. Baird, Clarence Beattie, Jean-Paul Guerin, Edmund Newton, Lucien Regimbald, Domenico Romano, Raymond Tremblay and Joao Viegas. In a statement sent out by the Ottawa District and Labour Council, Mike Lecuyer was employed as a labourer on the bridge at the time. He says there was a loud noise and then “all hell broke loose” as the aftermath of the collapse was upon everyone. Those whose lives were lost were read out at the commemoration ceremony. Sean McKenny, president of the Ottawa and District Labour Council, says the frustration lies today because the tragedy was preventable. “The Heron Road Bridge collapse was preventable. And all data will show that, and all of the meetings afterwards will indicate that,” he said. McKenny says at the time, many people ran to the scene to help in any way they could. “The city, our city, stopped that Aug. 10 afternoon back in 1966, for its people became one,” said McKenny from the podium during the ceremony. Gilles Lamadeleine, another child of Omer’s, says he was 21 when his father passed. “I remember that I was going back home from work and I heard it on the radio, so I just – I went home and I turned back,” he said. He says he doesn’t remember what he feels of that day beyond the shock. “I knew where my father was working, but I couldn’t (get there). There were so many people by the time I got there. We were not allowed to go in the site. There was too many people, and it was very sad.” His father left behind twelve children in all. “Following Saturday, it was my sister’s wedding and instead of the wedding it was the funerals,” Gilles Lamadeleine said. “At the same time, same place.” The collapse is also the single largest workplace disaster in Ontario and one of the biggest in North America. McKenny says it helped bring major changes to health and safety regulations. “We have an Occupational Health and Safety Act now. We have construction regulations. And a lot of those talked to and were built upon that old bridge collapse,” McKenny said. “That did start the ball rolling, in respect to a lot of the definitions that are used today, in a lot of the legislation and again the regulations that we have, that exist today.” More than 1,000 workers die on the job each year, says McKenny. Braydon Potter, president of the Ottawa-Gatineau Unionized Building Trades, says safety is paramount. “Safety in construction is an ongoing concern,” he said. “It is important to honor the lives that have been lost and the lives that have been changed to also ensure that moving forward we have more safety and more standards to help workers come home to their families.” Gilles Lamadeleine says he hopes that today shows everyone the importance of safety. “Be very, very careful on the construction site,” said Gilles Lamadeleine. “If it’s not safe, don’t go. Tell the boss. Don’t risk your life if it’s not safe for you.”
