Shannon LaRoche and Ralph Duncan waited two years to find out how and why their sons died in a manure truck.
They hoped a Saskatchewan labor department investigation would give them the answers they craved.
They didn’t get those answers. The government refuses to give either of them a copy of the investigation report, which was recently completed.
And neither was informed that the investigation had been concluded, or that the investigator decided no one was to blame for the tragedy, which killed 24-year-old Collin LaRoche, 20-year-old Andrew Duncan and 39-year-old Ron Carson on Sept. 25, 1998.
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“We just happened to be listening to the news,” said Shannon LaRoche, whose family lives on a farm south of Prince Albert.
“We didn’t know anything. We heard it on the news like everybody else.”
Ralph Duncan, who lives in the same area, had a similar experience.
“I didn’t know anything about it until I read it in the paper.”
Once the families of the three men discovered the investigation was concluded, they called the labor department asking for copies of its report. The department refused to voluntarily release them.
Confidential report
Department spokesperson Carol Todd said the report can’t be released because it contains witness statements that are confidential.
The department has no policy requiring it to inform relatives, Todd said.
The parents are now trying to get a copy of the investigation by using the province’s freedom of information law.
LaRoche said she disagrees with the no-fault finding and wants to see how the investigator reached his conclusion.
Although the labor department has not released any written statements about its investigation, Todd has summarized the findings.
LaRoche said she disagrees with the suggestion that the three men were trained.
The crew boss, Carson, was trained in how to deal with hydrogen sulfide gas.
But since he was the first one overcome by the gas, the rest of the crew had no one with experience to tell them how to rescue their fallen colleague, said LaRoche.
“I don’t think any of them had any idea that one breath would take your life,” she said.
LaRoche thinks the labor department should ensure manure injection crews are well trained. She said inspectors should be much more intrusive, the way restaurant inspectors are.
Duncan said he hopes his freedom of information request shakes loose the labor department investigation.
If it doesn’t, he’ll be left with more questions about the accident than he has been coping with for two years.
“Maybe they’ve pushed the whole thing aside,” Duncan said.
