Round-the-clock system to take effect two years after attendant’s death
Gillian Shaw
Sun
Starting Feb. 1, anyone buying fuel at a service station in B. C. will have to prepay.
The regulation comes two years after the day gas station attendant Grant De Patie, who was dragged to his death in 2005 when he tried to stop a motorist who hadn’t paid, would have celebrated his 27th birthday.
In announcing the new regulation this week, Labour and Citizens’ Services Minister Olga Ilich said it will help protect employees who work late at night.
“Government’s priority is to protect all workers in British Columbia,” Ilich said at the announcement.
“We want to make sure that people return home safely after a day’s work.”
Prepayment will be mandatory at service stations across B.C. 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Ilich thanked Grant’s parents, Doug and Corinne De Patie, and his grandparents, Chet and Florence Crellin, for their work in promoting improved safety measures for B.C. workers.
“Minister Ilich has been a real champion for this cause, and has kept up the momentum towards these changes during the past year,” Doug De Patie said in the release. “We are pleased and proud that the government has followed through with these new rules that will mean more safety for workers who face the kind of risks that Grant did.”
The mandatory prepayment system, which becomes the second component of what has been dubbed ‘Grant’s Law’, follows on earlier WorkSafeBC requirements for orientation and training for new workers, including service station attendants.
Teenager Darnell Darcy Platt pleaded guilty to manslaughter in De Patie’s death and was sentenced to nine years imprisonment, with that sentence reduced to seven years by the B.C. Court of Appeal.
Pratt had taken $12 worth of gas from the Maple Ridge Esso where De Patie worked when he struck De Patie with his car and dragged him 7.5 kilometres, leaving him dead in the middle of the road.
