construction accident toronto

Man rescued from gaping hole at construction site in downtown Toronto

Exclusive video footage of someone being rescued from a scary-looking hole in the ground at Lower Sherbourne and The Esplanade in Toronto shows just how lucky one construction worker is to be alive today after what's thought to have been an unfortunate accident.

The Toronto Police Service reported an "industrial accident" on Monday afternoon in Old Town Toronto, just east of the Distillery District, noting that a worker had become stuck in a tunnel at a construction site.

Emergency responders were called to the scene just before 3 p.m. on Monday, resulting in the closure of Lower Sherbourne from Lake Shore Boulevard to The Esplanade.

Roads reopened around 4 p.m. after the worker was pulled out of the tunnel and taken to hospital with "serious but non-life threatening injuries."

Twitter user Eagle Spirit, whose handle is @whitewindbear, managed to capture part of the rescue on camera, showing the individual in question being carefully pulled from the massive hole and loaded onto a stretcher.

Ontario's Ministry of Labour is investigating, though it's unclear at this point what the worker was doing or how they ended up trapped inside the vertical tunnel.

Based on the size, shape and location of the hole, the incident may be related to a $120 million Hydro One infrastructure renewal project that involves a massive boring tunnel, cranes, and an eventual subterranean housing space for transmission cables beneath downtown Toronto.

Lead photo by

Eagle Spirit


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