The death of a landscaper struck by a large branch that fell from a tree he was helping to lop has brought renewed calls for stricter controls on the training and certification of workers involved in potentially dangerous jobs.

The owners of two of the largest landscaping companies in Bermuda, along with a qualified tree care professional and trainer, say there needs to be proper regulation of the industry as happens in many other countries.

The circumstances surrounding the death of the 34-year-old Portuguese man, believed to be a father-of-one with another child on the way, are still being investigated.

He was killed while working on a casuarina tree in the garden of a house on Fairylands Road, near the Point Shares bridge. The tree was the last in a row that was being cut back by a team from Island Construction and Landscaping Services. It is not known if the man who died was a fully trained landscaper.

However, the tragedy has put a new focus on the landscaping business with three long-standing professionals calling for action to make the industry safer with better regulation and training.

Jeff Sousa, president of Sousa?s Landscape Management Company, said talks about training and certification were first raised by himself and others within the Technical Education Advisory Committee some 10 years ago. And as recently as April there had been an attempt to bring together all the Island?s various landscaping firms to discuss safety issues. However, in both cases nothing has happened.

?Something needs to be done and it needs to be made compulsory. We have lost a life. Hopefully something will be done about this,? said Mr. Sousa.

?It is hard to get some of the other chaps onboard because some of them are only looking to make money and not looking at training and professional certification. Government has led the way by educating its people in the Parks Department and the Regiment.?

During the past six years arborist Fiona Doe has undertaken extensive training overseas of her own accord to become qualified in most aspects of tree surgery, chainsaw skills, landscape pruning and is qualified to train others.

She has run training courses at Bermuda College in the past and now runs them independently herself.

She said: ?In other countries in the world you can?t get off the ground without the proper certifications. Arboriculture is the study, care and management of trees and yes, there is training. If I was working on a tree I?d be roped up in three different ways.

?The need for training has to be driven by someone.?

Kevin Horsfield, general manager of Horsfield Landscape and Design, said: ?The Health and Safety office in the UK would close down a job site if it found the workers not properly equipped or trained.

?The thrust of what we are saying is that we want to strive for a more professional Bermuda. A worker feels more professional if they have been given the training, and this goes equally for landscaping and construction work

?Perhaps it can be achieved by offering a tax incentive to companies who want to train their staff.?

As reported in the earlier this month, the Occupational Health and Safety Act is in the process of being expanded during the coming months to bring it in line with many other countries, possibly allowing the concerns of those within the landscaping industry to be incorporated in new legislation. Senior Health and Safety Officer Doris Foley is off Island at the moment.

Mr. Sousa said he had seen many landscaping teams working in Bermuda in unorthodox and dangerous manners. He added: ?I would ask Bermudians, when they drive around, to look how many people do not wear safety glasses when they are operating a strimmer. Stones and pieces of glass can come out of those strimmers like bullets and you only have one eye ? you can?t buy another one.

?Unless safety measures are made compulsory these people will not come on board. We have to have a commitment to professionalism and it has to come from the Government.?

Mr. Sousa, Ms Doe and Mr. Horsfield extended their sympathy to the family of the man who died at Fairylands and to Island Construction.