By Terry Davidson, Toronto Sun
First posted: Monday, November 02, 2015 02:45 PM EST | Updated: Monday, November 02, 2015 08:20 PM EST
An industrial accident on Highway 7, near Unionville, claimed the life of a man in his late 50s when he was crushed by a pipe Monday, Nov. 2, 2015. (Stan Behal/Toronto Sun)A construction worker was killed on the side of a highway in Unionville Monday after a massive piece of steel pipe rolled into a ditch, crushing him.
York Regional Police confirmed the Ajax man was killed around 8:20 a.m. on the north side of Hwy. 7, just west of Main St., as he and his colleagues worked at the side of the busy roadway.
Const. Laura Nicolle confirmed the pipe came loose and rolled into the ditch. She said the 50-year-old victim was dragged down and trapped under the pipe at the bottom of the muddy ditch. Police said his name won’t be released.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Labour, which is now investigating, said the victim — an employee of Coco Paving Inc. — and one other worker were doing a welding job on the pipe at the time.
Coco Paving spokesman Anthony Rossi said the victim was a “long-standing” employee but gave no further details, citing the ongoing investigation.
“This is hard, and our condolences to the family,” Rossi said.
According to provincial documents, a Coco Paving Inc. was fined $170,000 in 2013 for an incident from two years before where a worker was killed by a reversing front-end loader at a construction site in Windsor. The fine amounted to $212,500 once a victim fund surcharge was taken into account. Police on scene Monday said there were three workers present when the mishap occurred. One man was so traumatized he needing to be taken to the hospital. After the pipe came to rest, one worker attempted to lift it off of the victim with a tractor equipped with a forklift, police said