‘I’m outraged:’ Councillor calls for safety review after woman injured by Ontario Line construction vehicle

A Toronto city councillor is calling for an immediate review of safety measures after a woman was critically injured by a construction vehicle working on the Ontario Line.

According to Toronto police, a 46-year-old woman was struck by a dump truck while crossing at the intersection of Mortimer and Pape Avenues on Feb. 6. She was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

“I was saddened and shocked to learn that a woman was hit by a Metrolinx sub-contractors dump truck on Thursday,” Toronto-Danforth Councillor Paula Fletcher says in a letter released on Sunday.

“I’m outraged that the dump truck was not using the approved ‘haul’ route for Ontario Line construction vehicles when it hit the pedestrian.”

Fletcher says one of the primary concerns with the transit project has been the safety of pedestrians and school children. She says specific haul routes were designed to limit travel through dense, residential streets and minimize those risks.

“Now, one of the worst possible incidents has happened, all because Metrolinx’s contractor was not following the designated haul route.
This is unacceptable,” writes Fletcher while calling on the provincial transit agency to investigate the contractor’s actions.

She also wants an immediate safety review of the Pape-Sammon Ontario Line site, which she claims has become a “larger construction zone” than originally planned as well as a review of other Ontario Line work zones.

“Metrolinx needs to make public a ‘safe haulage’ plan for the transport of soil from its future Gerrard and Carlaw portal, where an estimated 100 dump trucks per day will remove excavated soil from the 4.2 km of subway tunnels to be built between Gerrard and the Don Valley.”

Similar safety concerns were raised by Liberty Village residents after it was revealed up to 400 dump trucks could potentially be driving through the neighbourhood’s main thoroughfare on a daily basis as part of Ontario Line construction. Metrolinx eventually revised their plan to keep dump trucks off the area’s main roads.

The Ontario Line is a 15-stop 15.6-kilometre route that starts at Exhibition Place, through the heart of downtown, all the way to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT at Don Mills Road. It is tentatively scheduled to open in 2031.