Work colleagues and family joined to mark the death of a building industry veteran on Saturday, with a memorial launched near the site where the father of two was killed.
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Wayne Vickery, 45, was fatally struck by a heavy grader on a West Macgregor building site on December 12, 2011.
The installation of a park bench in his honour was the joint initiative of the Canberra Contractors – for whom he worked for 14 years until his death – and the business behind the project, Village Building Company.
A plaque remembered a “beloved father, husband, son, brother and mate”, with the estate now a “legacy to Wayne’s commitment in building this community”.
Mr Vickery’s wife, Fiona Vickery, said she appreciated the initiative of the two companies to install the simple hilltop memorial.
“It’s a nice touch, they didn’t have to go the extra yard,” she said.
“It looks out over the Brindabellas.”
Ms Vickery said Chief Minister Katy Gallagher had given her support to the marker, with the ACT’s head of government, CFMEU representatives and family members from as far away as Queensland at the site on Saturday morning.
The event came at a sensitive time, with an inquest into the workplace death suspended on Monday after Chief coroner Lorraine Walker found there were grounds to believe an indictable offence had been committed.
The Coroners Court was told that Mr Vickery and a co-worker had been levelling a road on the project, with Mr Vickery checking levels on foot while the co-worker drove the grader.
About 2pm, Mr Vickery had crouched behind the machine to conduct a check when the grader reversed into him.
The law requires the coroner to write to the Director of Public Prosecutions once reasonable suspicion has been established, with the director to decide whether to pursue a criminal case.
Ms Vickery has said she still wants to know why her husband died, and she had little contact with his work colleagues after the death.
“Every time they see me they want to run,” she said.
The memorial for Mr Vickery comes 10 months after a park bench and bubbler was installed at a Kingston site as a marker to 21-year-old construction worker Ben Catanzariti, who was killed after being struck by a concrete boom pump.
