PERSONAL IMPACT STATEMENT — MARK HOLAND — WorkSafeBC Claim

| could feel my thinking was sharp. | was ready for the best job of my career.

Who! Am At Work

Even after being passed over for the technician position — despite having more rail experience
than the entire group of six hired combined — and even after being held back from Control
training without any direct communication, | continued to work exactly as | always had.

| did not sulk. | did not reduce my effort. | became more vocal in safety meetings — which is not
a negative thing. | continued performing maintenance nobody else did.

Since mid-2025 | had been wearing my own MSA MIPS safety helmet in the yard and guideway
— purchased myself because the company-issued hard hats lack a chin strap and side impact
rating. Slip and trip hazard present equals hard hat on. | received strange looks. | did not care.
That is how my brain works in every job | have ever held.

My safety conscious colleague and | have observed that BCRTC operates reactively, not
proactively, when it comes to safety. The Control Department in particular appears to have an
arrogant indifference — a zero lost time incidents attitude, conveniently ignoring that control
operators work indoors. | hope my incident changes that culture.

None of my work ethic or safety consciousness changed after January 12. What changed was
my body's ability to show up.

My Hearing — This Is Not Pre-Existing Damage

| want to be completely explicit: this is not a pre-existing hearing condition. This is new,
documented damage caused by workplace exposure.

| have actively protected my hearing for decades. In every noisy industrial environment — rail
maintenance, tower rigging, yard work — | wore appropriate hearing protection because | value
my hearing. Not because it is fragile. Because it is exceptional.

| have what | would describe as hi-fidelity hearing. | hear qualities in sound that most people
cannot detect. This is not a sensitivity that causes pain from ordinary sounds. It is enhanced
perception — the same way some people see more shades of colour than others. | can work
inside Rail Borne Equipment all night without hearing protection and be completely fine. | have
slept next to a 20 foot waterfall in the mountains and woken up rested.

This is precisely why the server noise was so damaging. My auditory system, finely tuned and
carefully protected over decades, was subjected to a constant, penetrating, low-quality fan tone
at close range for 10 hours a day. The hearing test on January 30 at Amplifon Clinic Surrey
showed a 10db drop at 8khz in my left ear compared to a September 2025 baseline taken only
four months prior. That is new damage. That is workplace damage. That is not pre-existing.

The Exposure

Page 2 — Confidential — WorkSafeBC Claim Documentation