Toronto trench collapse leaves one dead, two hurt

A worker died, and two others were seriously injured after a trench collapse in Toronto’s Bayview Avenue and Ruddington Avenue area on November 6, 2024.

Toronto Fire Services said the incident occurred around 5:25 p.m. while the men were repairing a water pipe. Platoon Chief Chris Rowland explained that the workers had been using a camera to inspect pipes in an excavation area when a trench wall collapsed, burying the workers under the soil.

Toronto Fire Services initially responded with ladders and shovels but quickly shifted to a trench rescue, Rowland said. Two teams equipped with ropes entered the site to perform the rescue, primarily digging by hand due to the presence of buried individuals.

Rowland noted that emergency crews were in the trench for over an hour, working to free the workers.

"These two gentlemen survived because the two crews that were inside that hole risked their lives," he said.

One worker was pronounced dead at the scene, while paramedics transported the other two to the hospital. Though initially reported as life-threatening, their injuries were later deemed serious but not critical, police said.

Toronto police have turned the investigation over to Ontario’s Ministry of Labour. The ministry is conducting a formal inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

A similar incident occurred in August, when a construction worker in his 30s was fatally trapped in a four-meter-deep trench at a private residence in Etobicoke, near Islington Avenue and Eglinton Avenue West. The worker had been conducting repairs in the residential neighborhood when the trench collapsed.

 

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