Chilling CMFEU video that predicted Brisbane worksite tragedy after teen apprentice Tyler Whitton dies following horror worksite plunge

A chilling video predicted the safety issue of falling from scaffolding onto concrete floor and steps at a construction site where a young apprentice plunged and was fatally injured.

Tyler Whitton, who had only just turned 17 and started work as an apprentice builder, fell around three metres at about 1:30pm on Tuesday at a building site on Victoria Street in the inner-city suburb of West End, Brisbane.

He was rushed to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in a serious condition where he was placed in an induced coma but could not be revived.

The Construction Forestry Maritime Mining And Energy Union (CFMEU) on June 16 posted on social media a video they took of a site inspection where they said a ‘huge fall from heights’ was a major safety concern.

‘We’ve got fall from heights around the edge of the building, straight over the edge,’ the narrator of the video said while showing a drop of metres from scaffolding to concrete floor and steps.

The union said they were inspecting the site that they made a video of because workers had reached out to them that morning with safety concerns. 

‘Workers have raised these concerns to the builder and told the CFMEU they were not given the time to clean the site or follow simple safety procedures,’ the union said at the time.

On Wednesday CFMEU state secretary Michael Ravbar slammed Workplace Health and Safety Queensland for allowing work to continue at the site on Tuesday after Tyler was taken to hospital.

‘After it took three hours for WHSQ to show up, the developer was allowed to complete the concrete pour despite clearly identified risk of falls from height at a number of locations on the top deck of the site,’ he said.

‘All under the watch of a broken regulator that is supposed to manage workplace health and safety.’

A video shot of a site inspection in June by the construction union highlighted the danger of falling

Site developer CS Development Group and Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, who are investigating the incident, have been contacted for comment. 

Meanwhile Tyler’s grandfather Jack Whitton has posted a heart-wrenching tribute to him on Facebook.

On Wednesday CFMEU state secretary Michael Ravbar slammed Workplace Health and Safety Queensland for allowing work to continue at the site on Tuesday after Tyler was taken to hospital 

‘It is with a heavy heart and heart felt sadness, that today I say goodbye to my beloved beautiful grandson Tyler,’ Mr Whitton wrote.

‘Words cannot describe the pain and complete numbness we are all experiencing… knowing that we needed to let him go.’

Mr Whitton said he could not imagine the pain his son Luke, Tyler’s dad, partner Letitia and Tyler’s mother, Jess, are going through.  

‘Tyler, you touched so many hearts with your life,’ Mr Whitton wrote.

‘A parent nor grandparent should never have to bury their child, yet here we are. 

‘We will send Tyler with great love in our hearts onward to his next journey.’