It was the peak of the morning rush hour Tuesday morning when a construction crane suddenly lurched sideways, leaving the boom suspended over Highway One in Surrey, B.C. with hundreds of drivers on the road.

Luckily nobody was killed. But the incident has once again shone an uncomfortable spotlight on the lack of regulations governing crane operators in B.C., particularly when it comes to training.

As WorkSafe BC continues its investigation into what caused the crane to topple, it is already clear that the operator wasn't certified.

"We dont' have any operators that are currently certified in the province,'' said Al Johnson of WorkSafe BC.

Certification isn't required, even on large construction projects in B.C., a province where the consequences of improper training and lack of certification are already highly apparent.

In January, 22-year old Andrew Slobodian died in the cab of this mobile crane when it toppled during construction on the Canada Line rapid transit project, near the Vancouver suburb of Richmond.

A Worksafe BC report released last week found overloading, insufficient training and lack of experience were the main factors in Slobodian's death.

A program to train and certify crane operators was supposed to be in place last year. But it's still months or possibly years away, from being implemented. 

"It is complex, when the calling when out to register to get certified they were inundated with 10,000 plus applicants,'' said Johnson.

A few of those applicants enrolled in a pilot project to test their competency.

Of the crane operators who voluntarily took the test, 40 per cent failed. They were deemed incompetent mainly because of their inability to accurately calculate a load.

Being able to accurately calculate a load is the difference between a safe lift, possible death, and near disaster, in the crane industry, officials says.

"Today's incident was very unfortunate, fortunately no one was injured and we'll determine the causes of what happened from that and apply those learnings to the future,'' said Johnson.

The toppled Surrey crane is owned by North Vancouver-based Vancouver Pile Driving Ltd. The company was subcontracted to build an underpass underneath the highway at 156th Street./>

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No one from the company returned any phone calls Tuesday.

With reports by CTV British Columbia correspondents Carrie Stefanson, Julia Foy, and Jina You.