24.12.2010

Bus and utility truck in fatal accident

One man is dead and another seriously injured after a bus struck the boom of an aerial lift in Toronto, Canada yesterday.

Two Stacey Electric employees had stopped on the inside lane of a three lane road under a bridge on Bathurst Street yesterday evening to replace a light. One man in his 50s went up in the platform and swung the boom over the centre lane, which remained open, to reach the light.
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His 42 year old colleague, Kevin MacDonald, apparently remained on the ground to ‘spot’ the man in the platform. A bus travelling in the centre lane then clipped the boom of the utility truck, catapulting the man from the platform. The bus then hit the other man on the ground who then died at the scene.

The man thrown from the platform was taken to hospital with serious head injuries. None of the bus passengers or the driver suffered any injuries.

Officials from the ministry of labour arrived at the scene to determine if the contractors had set up their equipment safely. McDonald is survived by a wife and two young children.

Vertikal Comment

Sadly it looks as though the man in the platform was not wearing a harness and the cordoning off below is not evident. We understand that this was an unscheduled stop to replace a light that one assumes was out.

An accident such as this is tragic at any time, but this time of year just before the holidays it is even more tragic – affecting a larger number of people in their relevant families. Spare a thought too for the lady bus driver who is also likely to have been seriously traumatised by the incident.

The most tragic fact of all though, is that this accident was entirely and easily avoidable.