Legal action pending over Eglinton LRT scaffolding collapse
Posted May 4, 2016 12:51 pm.
Last Updated May 4, 2016 11:51 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A legal battle could be brewing over the scaffolding collapse that injured six people, including a baby, at the site of a future Eglinton LRT station.
Around 2:30 p.m. on April 18, scaffolding tumbled down onto the streets of Forest Hill, at Bathurst Street and Eglinton Avenue. The building, which houses a Chinese restaurant, was being demolished to make way for Forest Hill station.
Lawyers for one of the victims, 66-year-old Hannah Somerset, said the collapse has “permanently altered quality of life for victim trapped in the rubble.”
Somerset was making her way to a TTC bus stop when the scaffold collapsed. According to her lawyers, her lower legs were trapped by debris and she lost consciousness for a brief period.
Hannah reportedly suffered a head injury and suffered fractures in both of her lower legs and feet. She also was diagnosed with a spinal fracture and suffered a large laceration on her left foot, her lawyer said.
“Hannah’s injuries are the result of somebody else’s negligence and should never have happened,” Ryan Murray, senior partner at the law firm of Oatley Vigmond, said in a statement.
“Within a period of just a few seconds the course of Hannah’s life was permanently altered when she became trapped under the collapsed scaffold. She will no longer be able to work in the job she loved and will require months of rehabilitation just to regain partial mobility,” he continued.
The Ministry of Labour continues to investigate to determine the cause of the collapse.
Murray said legal action will be taken once the Ministry’s investigation has been completed.
Crosslinks, the company that is doing the work on the Eglinton LRT, had temporarily halted demolition at three sites as a precaution but construction has since resumed.