Construction Crane Collapses in Regent Park

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Construction cranes are generally perceived as very mundane fixtures in the rapidly-upward expanding metropolitans across the world. Invading roof-types and transforming city skylines into never-ending symbols of perpetual development and change. Most city-dwellers have grown accustomed to the spread of cranes across the city of Toronto. But more than that, new concerns are growing from these metal towering machines.

In 2018, a 23 year old “thrill-seeker” Marisa Lazo, climbed on top of a construction crane at the corner of Church and Wesley, to take a selfie as part of an Instagram trend called “roof topping”. Marisa ended up stuck on the crane, which resulted in a rescue operation by Toronto firefighters. She succeeded in her attempt for “fame” for her selfie and was dubbed “Crane Girl”, in newspapers across the country and social media internationally; Also landed herself a $100 dollar fine. A part from creating infamous social media personalities, intentionally risking their own lives on cranes, cranes themselves have posed a danger to on-lookers below.

On August 6th, 2020 at 10:30 am, a Daniels Corporation construction site in Regent Park, at the corner of Dundas and River, sounded an alarm to evacuate their site upon discovering a few bolts had broken off one of their construction cranes. In their attempt to clear the area of workers, pedestrians and vehicles, the crane instantly started to collapse. The sound of it collapsing sent many people running for their lives. A cyclist had to quickly abandon her bike as the crane collapsed on to the street smashing into her bike and narrowly missing another bystander who was later treated for shock. This occurred 3 weeks after a previous crane collapsed, on a PCL Constructors Canada site at Wellington and Simcoe.

The recent collapse sent many without power in Regent Park and as far North as Cabbagetown. Local residents from Regent Park, Oak Street Cooperative and Corktown came out to see the disaster and to ensure their friends, family and neighbors were okay. Several members mentioned seeing clouds of dust and electric wiring snapping apart, as the crane collapsed on top of the Dundas and River intersection.

Onlookers were shocked and amazed at the result of no injuries and quick thinking of the construction crew that went out to clear the area minutes before the collapse. However, many members of the community said they are now uncertain about the safety in-regards to construction cranes. This being in a neighborhood with several buildings currently in early phases of construction as part of the revitalization of Regent Park. 

 

The Daniels Corporation, Mayor John Tory and Doug Ford have all released statements following the incident.

The Daniels Corporation: “Construction at the site has been temporarily suspended and we are fully cooperating with investigators. We have also initiated our own internal investigation into the incident.”

Mayor John Toronto: “My office has reached out to the Minister of Labour's office and asked them to make sure clear direction is sent to the construction industry as soon as possible and that they consider additional inspections,” Tory said in a statement.

“Toronto Building has sent an inspector to the site to assess if there has been any impact to the surrounding building structures."

Premiere Doug Ford: “I can't remember the last time a crane collapsed like that so obviously there’s an issue," Ford said. "I don’t know if it’s the same company or when they erected the crane itself. But I have confidence in the Ministry of Labour that they’ll get down to the bottom of it.”

 As of August 9th, Power has since been restored to the Regent Park community and the collapsed crane has been dissembled and removed from the street. River and Dundas has re-opened for traffic and pedestrians.

 

Watch video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04GxjxFLggg

By Tyrone-Maclean Wilson

(Tyrone is a staff journalist with the FOCUS Media Arts Centre)



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