Oak Bay public works employees gathered Thursday morning to remember the co-worker they called “sweet Steve” at the site where he was killed on the job.
About two dozen employees visited the spot on Monterey Avenue where Steve Seekins, a 52-year-old married father of two young children, was struck and killed by an SUV Wednesday morning while working on a manhole.
The car, driven by a 66-year-old Victoria woman, was heading northbound when it crossed into the southbound lane and jumped the sidewalk into a small park where Seekins was observing the flow of water in a manhole.
The vehicle continued about 10 metres before crashing into a large tree. The driver was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Oak Bay employees created a memorial to Seekins at the site, with his hard hat perched on a post, bouquets of flowers and a construction zone road sign.
“It’s been a very difficult day,” said Steve Rennick, deputy director of engineering and public works.
“The crew started their shift here. They built a little bit of a memorial and they said some words.”
His co-workers knew Seekins as an easy-going guy who adored his wife and kids and talked about them all the time, Rennick said. He had worked at the municipality for about six months and had made a big impression on his fellow workers, Rennick said.
Seekins’s wife and young daughter visited the memorial Thursday morning as crews were paying their respects.
Seekins was working with two other employees at the time of his death, cutting roots in a manhole that were blocking the flow of water. Seekins was looking in the manhole to check the flow.
“So on a bright sunny day, he would have been crouching down with his flashlight to try and see what was going on down there,” Rennick said.
The two employees who were with Seekins at the time of his death are now off work, Rennick said.
Counselling has been offered to district staff.
A fundraiser for Seekins’s family (gofundme.com/f/collection-for-oak-bay-public-works-employee) had raised just over $70,000 by Thursday night.
The union representing Oak Bay staff has also created a fundraiser through the Community Savings Credit Union, as many unions were more comfortable contributing to a bank account, said CUPE 374 president Shireen Clark.
Anyone wishing to donate can do so by sending an e-transfer to [email protected].
Since he was an auxiliary employee who started working at the district in September, Seekins’ family is not entitled to life insurance, Clark said. The union is hoping to raise enough to provide the family monthly payments that would cover up to two years of salary, in lieu of life insurance, he said.
“The last thing she needs to worry about is money right now,” she said.
Seekins’s death comes as Road Safety at Work, a B.C. health and safety program aimed at reducing death and injury for people working on the road or who drive for work, begins its “cone zone” campaign to bring attention to road safety.
Over a 10-year period from 2012 to 2021, 12 roadside workers have been killed in B.C., and 221 were injured seriously enough to take time off work, said Trace Acres, program director for Road Safety at Work.
Seekins’s death is a tragic reminder that all roadside workers are vulnerable, and that drivers should respect speed limits in work zones, Acres said.
“These are people who are in vulnerable circumstances working in vulnerable circumstances. They deserve to have our respect and our attention,” he said.
Police are continuing to investigate what led to the crash and no charges have been laid.
WorkSafeBC is also looking to identify the cause of the crash and any contributing factors so that similar incidents can be prevented in future.
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