CALGARY, (Oct. 28, 2002) — An Alberta Workers’ Compensation Board review committee has finally ruled it will pay a Lethbridge rail conductor benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) he suffered after the locomotive of a CPR freight train he was on struck a welder’s truck at a level crossing and killed the two occupants inside.

Barry Ericksen claimed that he had experienced difficulty working over the stress of witnessing the 1993 accident, in which the welder’s truck caught fire and the two occupants inside burned to death before his eyes. Ericksen went on sick leave on and off throughout the following year after experiencing nightmares, severe anxiety, and weight loss of up to 100 pounds. Fifteen months after the incident he was diagnosed with PTSD, and was urged to file a claim with the board.

The claim and a subsequent appeal were denied by the board because Ericksen did not file within the one year margin the board’s policy permitted.

“Unfortunately everyone at the time believed that stress and stress related disorders weren’t compensable,” said Lou Schillaci, general chairperson of the United Transportation Union, which represented Ericksen. “He himself wasn’t aware he qualified for compensation until well after he was diagnosed.”

The board’s Claims Services Review Committee has now overturned its previous two decisions and grated Ericksen compensation. The precedent will likely force the board to review its policy, and open the door for other Alberta employees who are diagnosed or experience PTSD symptoms as a result of a work-related incident after one year.

“The frustrating part was that nobody disagreed with the diagnosis, but it was a technicality that was holding us back,” Schillaci told Today’s Trucking. This time around however, Ericksen received some strong support from his employer. “This is rare coming from a union officer, but what really tuned things around this time was the company. CP Rail put forward a letter that basically convinced the board to rehear on the basis on new information. So now you have both the union and the company singing the same song on behalf of the employee. They stated very clearly in the letter he should be given compensation.”

Schillaci hopes that other provincial boards adopt the same approach taken in Alberta to address similar policies. “It’s an important breakthrough in understanding that the victims of an accident are sometimes also the ones who survive,” he said.